Syrian Activist

• Prize
• Photographer
  Natasha FIllion, Canada
• Date of Photograph
  online
• Website
  http://natashafillion.photoshelter.com/

Alaadine al-Yousef is one of the Syrian governments most wanted activists in the region of Jabal al-Zawiya. He tours the area with his satellite phone and records the atrocities, killings and arrests committed by the government authorities.
His reports end up in the UN tally that international governments rely upon. At the time of writing, over 5000 people have been killed since protests began in March 2011.
Syria has blocked entry to most foreign journalists and the local media has been characterized as state-controlled. Its activists, like Mr. Yousef, who inform the world about what is really going on.

• Biography
  Natasha Fillion is a Canadian photojournalist. She discovered photojournalism while backpacking around the world in her late teens and early 20's. She studied Photojournalism at Loyalist Collage in Canada and started her career freelancing for daily newspapers in Montreal. She was based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for a year after the 2010 earthquake. Most recently she has focused her lens on the Syrian revolution, she crossed into the country illegally from Turkey and for two weeks covered the uprising with the opposition army and local activists.