Citizen Journalist in Syria Is Captured and Tortured, Activists Say A citizen journalist in Syria who has been instrumental in assisting those covering the conflict in Homs, helping evacuate wounded journalists from inside the city's neighborhood of Baba Amr, has been seized and perhaps tortured by the Syrian government, an activist told CNN on Saturday. The citizen journalist, Ali Mahmoud Othman, was the head of the media center in Homs, according to CNN, and was thought to be at a secure military unit in Aleppo, added the activist, who requested anonymity for security reasons. "We believe Ali is being subjected to severe torture," the activist told CNN. The lives of our activists and citizen journalists across the whole country are now at risk. Activists cited the apparent detention of an essential cog in the "citizen journalist network" as the latest example of President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown against journalists trying to chronicle the bloody conflict. CNN said that the media team that worked with Mr. Othman in Baba Amr issued a statement placing "full responsibility on the Syrian Assad regime for any harm caused to the journalist Ali Othman." William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said in a statement that he was "very concerned" about the treatment of Mr. Othman, according to CNN. He has called on Syrian authorities to release Mr. Othman and other political prisoners "immediately." On Sunday, Sen. John McCain of Arizona released his own statement on the reports of Mr. Othman's detention: There are credible and troubling reports that the Syrian journalist, Ali Mahmoud Othman, has been detained and is being tortured by Assad's forces. This courageous man has risked his life repeatedly to tell the story of the Syrian people, and he put himself in harm's way to help get wounded Western journalists out of Syria. The world must unite in calling for the immediate release of Ali Mahmoud Othman, as well as every other Syrian prisoner of conscience being held by Assad. He also posted a message on Twitter. Heather Blake, the United Kingdom's representative for the journalist watchdog group Reporters Without Borders, told CNN on Saturday that the Syrian authorities were "systematically targeting journalists working inside Syria, and particularly local journalists and the media centers that have been set up." At least eight journalists have been killed while covering the conflict since November, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Five were killed in February, including Marie Colvin, a correspondent for The Sunday Times of London.