I'm no spy - Journalist denies helping Syrian regime

An American journalist has strongly denied that he spied for the Syrian regime and handed its officials information on the movement of fellow Western reporters.

Correspondence between Nir Rosen and Bashar al-Assad's advisers emerged after the Syrian president's personal email account was hacked into by opposition groups.

In the emails, Mr Rosen tried to gain an interview with Mr Assad, arguing that the international media was already reporting from inside restricted zones in Syria, and highlighted favourable coverage of the regime he had secured on al-Jazeera.

In one message, he forwarded a BBC story from Homs by the journalist Paul Wood. His email was eventually forwarded to Mr Assad, with an adviser writing "Paul Wood was smuggled to Homs!!!".

Mr Rosen said that the only information he shared were links to stories already available on the internet.

"You deal with media people and you kiss their a--- to get the access whether it's the Taliban, the US military or the Syrian regime," he said.