DAMACSUS, (SANA)- Foreign and Expatriates Ministry on Thursday stressed the necessity for foreign journalists to respect the laws regulating journalistic work in Syria and avoid breaching laws and entering the Syrian territories illegally to access turbulent and unsafe places.

The Ministry's spokesman said in a statement that respect of journalistic work-regulating laws in Syria will allow the visiting journalists to get facilitations and the Information Ministry's care and advice about the situation on the ground before heading to any place.

"The Information Ministry is making significant efforts and has granted entry permits for about 200 media delegations over the past two months," the statement added, stressing that "these permits are authenticated for those who have doubts about allowing journalists to enter Syria."

"On the human level, we offer condolences to the media institutions and the families of the journalists who died on the Syrian territories," said the Foreign Ministry spokesman, rejecting, however, "all statements that hold Syria accountable for the death of journalists who infiltrated Syria at their own risk without the Syrian authorities' knowledge of their entry and whereabouts."

H. Said