BEIRUT: A journalist working for Syria's pro-regime Dunya TV was shot dead on Friday while reporting on clashes in a regime-controlled area in the northern city of Aleppo, the channel said on its website.

Dunya TV said it had received news of "the death of our colleague Sohail Mahmud Ali by terrorist bullets," without giving further details.

Scores of state media workers have been killed during the Syrian conflict, both in combat reporting and in targeted killings.

At least 17 professional journalists, both foreign and Syrian, and 44 citizen journalists have died reporting on one of the deadliest wars for the media in recent years, according to figures from media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

On December 4, a reporter for government newspaper Tishrin was shot dead in Damascus while a state television cameraman was gunned down outside his home in the capital on December 22.

Dozens of other state media journalists have defected to the opposition since the uprising erupted in March last year, with most quietly leaving the country for exile in Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon.

For those who continue to work in the headquarters of state television and radio in central Damascus, the threat of kidnap and murder is constant.