According to The Telegraph, a Syrian businessman, Fahim Saqr, has issued threats against Al Jazeera reporters working in Syria and offered a bounty of 10 million liras (about $95,000) to any citizen who brought those journalists to the Syrian authorities. Saqr was quoted as saying, "These people mislead Syrian citizens inside and outside the country, mislead the Arab world and mislead the whole world with their false reporting, which aims to fragment the country and Syria's social fabric."
The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned these threats and Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said, "Our Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya colleagues face enormous risk in their coverage of the Syrian conflict, and this reckless announcement can further raise the danger"
The Al Jazeera Media Network has also denounced the threats. The director of news for Al Jazeera Arabic, Ibrahim Helal, said, “Al Jazeera prides itself on honest and objective reporting, people who feel Al Jazeera does not reflect their point of view have no basis for any argument when they use threats of intimidation and violence through social media portals like Facebook and Twitter."
The danger is very real for journalists working in turbulent countries like Syria. They are at risk simply for being where they are and threats for simply doing their jobs make things that much harder. Al Jazeera is a powerful media presence in the Middle East - if even its reporters aren't safe from threats, can any really be?