(Syria – Qamishli – Free Media Union)
Preface:
Syria is approaching its fourteenth year and continues to lie under the shadow of the growing crisis that began in 2011 and casts a catastrophic shadow on it and its population. Its effects and repercussions continue reflecting on Syrians in general and on journalists in particular, who continue to be pursued by targeting and violations, and sometimes by those around them. It may affect their relatives and loved ones.
Every year, we notice new developments taking place on the Syrian scene with a greater threat and greater events that reflect the reality of all Syrians in general. As a result of this worsening situation, the journalists’ obsession has grown and their work has increased as these events have worsened, and the nature of international interventions has begun to require a more free and strong press to keep pace with what is happening on the ground. However the controlling authorities moved far from neutralizing these journalists and considering them as civilian residents. Rather, they considered them among the warring political parties on the ground, and they all worked on the principle (if you are not with us with your pen, then you are against us).
As a result of this bad political mentality of the conflicting parties on Syrian territory, dozens of journalists have been subjected to various violations in several ways in all the conflict areas on its territory. The number of these violations against male and female journalists during the year 2023 exceeded more than 20 violations distributed over several regions and cities, and their methods varied, including murder, arrest, harassment, threats, confiscation of property, suspension from work, and others.
4 journalists and one media worker were killed
During its work for the year 2023, the Free Media Union documented the killing of 4 journalists and one media worker in various regions of Syria, each region affiliated with a specific party. Where Syria is divided according to the parties controlling it into four regions: (the Syrian government regions, the Autonomous Administration regions in NE Syria, regions under the control of the Turkish occupation and factions loyal to it, and regions under the control of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham organization (formerly the Al-Nusra Front) and the Turkish occupation alongside it.
On August 10, the Free Media Union in Syria documented the killing of the correspondent for the Syrian Sama TV loyal to the Damascus government, Firas Al-Ahmad Al-Aqayla, in Daraa Governorate, southern Syria, as a result of an explosion that targeted his car, along with members and leaders of the military security. The perpetrating party was armed opposition factions that did not… It is still carrying out its activities secretly in Daraa against the Damascus government
The Union also documented on 23 August an incident that is considered the most prominent and violent against Syrian journalists during the year 2023, in which Turkey bombed a van carrying journalists working for Jin TV near the Ali Faro Crossroads in the western countryside of Qamishli, NE Syria, where the targeting led to the killing of media worker Nejimeldin Faisal Hajj Sinan while doing his work, and the critical injury of reporter Dalila Akid.
In mid-August of last year, the Union was able to document the killing of media activist Khalil Ibrahim Al-Mousa in Damascus government prison(Saidnaya Prison), one year after his arrest as a result of a Facebook post he wrote on his private page. He died as a result of torture. The journalist comes from the city of Daraa, southern Syria.
At the end of October 2023, it was documented that the media activist, named Muhammad Othman, was killed, as a result of his injuries by a bombing by Damascus government forces on the city of Idlib.
On November 10, the Union documented the killing of media activist Mahmoud Al-Harbi Al-Kafri, by gunshots fired by unknown gunmen in the city of Daraa, located in southern Syria.
We return to the second documentation incident carried out by the Union in northeastern Syria, where journalist Dalila Akid was directly targeted by a drone bombing, as we mentioned earlier. The plane targeted her while practicing her journalistic work and while she was going to cover a media report in the countryside of the city of Qamishli,NE Syria, where she was raised This incident was internationally condemned and condemned by the Committee to Protect International Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and other organizations and unions concerned with journalism.
We return to the second documentation incident carried out by the Union in NE Syria, where journalist Dalila Akid was directly targeted by a drone bombing, as we mentioned earlier. The plane targeted her while practicing her journalistic work and while she was going to cover a media report in the countryside of the city of Qamishli, NE Syria, where she raised this incident was internationally several condemnations by the Committee to Protect International Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and other organizations and unions concerned with journalism.
Immediately after the targeting, action was taken by our Union of Free Media, and we formed a fact-finding committee. The committee investigated the truth about the targeting and it turned out that the Turkish targeting was carried out with a premeditated and premeditated drone. Although the truth was revealed, the international and human rights organizations did not move towards Turkey and hold it accountable effectively and contented themselves with timid data that did not live up to the required level.
With these documents, three journalists were killed in regions of the Damascus government, one was killed in regions under Turkish control and its affiliated groups and organizations, and a media worker in regions of the Autonomous Administration was killed by Turkish bombing.
Arrest of at least 5 journalists and several temporary arrests
Journalists in Syria, just like the civilian population, have not been spared from arrests and dark prisons…only because they speak the word of truth, expose corruption, and report the crimes of the aggressors and the horror of their war on civilians and the defenseless population.
The number of detained journalists and media activists whose detention incidents the Free Media Union was able to document this year has reached 4 journalists, at the hands of the controlling authorities in all Syrian regions.
In turn, we have not been able to accurately document the places of arrests due to the difficulty and danger of accessing information in those prisons, especially in regions under the control of Turkey and its affiliated armed groups and organizations, as they do not have official prisons where detainees are taken to unknown destinations. As for the regions of the Autonomous Administration, there have been some arrests of some journalists and confiscation of their equipment .
The Union documented the incident of the arrest of Syrian journalist Rizq Al-Abbi at the hands of factions and armed groups loyal to Ankara, and his arrest was not revealed until days after the operation by some journalists and activists. Al-Abbi has likely been arrested since the 10th of last April, along with his wife, and the arrest order was discovered in The beginning of May, according to the sources we were able to reach.
On 7 May 2023, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra), supported by Turkey, arrested several people, including journalist Ahmed Abdel-Wahab, in the town of Deir Hassan, north of Idlib, northwestern Syria, on charges of incitement and opposition to it.
On 29 July 2023, the security services of the Damascus government stormed the home of journalist Lama Abbas to arrest her following her posts and statements on social media criticizing the living reality. She was arrested during the raid, and was released days later.
On 8 August 2023, an extremist organization loyal to Turkey, called “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” (formerly the Al-Nusra Front), arrested media activist Youssef al-Muezzin, who hails from the countryside of the capital, Damascus, in front of one of the camps for the displaced in the Idlib countryside, northwestern Syria.
Some cases of arrests of journalists took place in NE Syria for several days, and all the justifications for their arrest after our questions to the competent authorities said they were for “security reasons” and not related to journalistic work.
Violations against Syrian journalists outside the country
At the end of November, the security forces of the Kurdistan Region arrested the Syrian journalist Suleiman Ahmed, journalist and editor of the Arabic section of the Roj News Agency, at the Semalka-Fish Khabur crossing gate after his return to the Kurdistan Region from Syria, and demanded Many local and regional organizations and agencies called for Al-Ahmad’s release, but they did not achieve any results, and he remains in detention without any clear and real charge.
At the end of December, the Turkish authorities sentenced Syrian journalists Alaa Farhat, director of the opposition “Orient” TV, and broadcaster Ahmed Al-Rihawi, presenter of the “Details” program, to six years in prison. The judicial ruling came after the Syrian journalists were accused of “insulting Turkey.” Against the backdrop of the channel’s broadcast of an episode within the “Details” program, it dealt with “Turkish gendarmerie” violations against Syrian refugees on the border with Syria.
Violations of another kind against a Syrian journalist
Some journalists in several regions of Syria have been exposed to various types of threats as a result of their journalistic work, including:
The journalist Lamara Arkandi, who works on Al Arabiya Net, was threatened as a result of a report on the practices of Turkish forces and their affiliated armed groups of serious violations against women in the regions of North and West Syria. The threat took place in August when she was threatened with death and liquidation by affiliated armed factions and groups. Ankara was also subjected to media mobilization by the Turkish authorities and their loyalists.
The Damascus government expelled journalist Samaher Dandoun from one of its government channels (the Syrian Educational TV) in September, after she expressed her solidarity with the demands of the popular movement in Suwayda in a post on her personal Facebook page.
We stated that Turkey and its affiliated armed groups continue to confiscate the property and homes of dozens of journalists in the regions it occupies in both the cities of Afrin and Sere Kaniye/Ras al-Ayn, NE Syria.
We also point out that the Autonomous Administration in NE Syria has stopped many journalists from working and doing journalism “for security reasons and the lack of discipline of journalists according to the agreed Charter of journalistic honor,” according to what the security authorities and the Media Department in NE Syria told us.
Distribution of violations
The violations have been spread over all Syrian geographies but in varying proportions. The most violated regions of the Damascus government came to journalists this year were at a rate of up to 50%, this is not so different in the regions under Turkish control and its affiliated groups and organizations, where the rate of violations reached 40%, with no role in Media women and their complete refusal to enter this field of work, which is a blatant and clear violation of the rights of women journalists in those regions.
While the regions of the Autonomous Administration come with violations of up to 10% and were limited to cases of detention for short periods and suspension of work, without any case of the killing of a journalist at the hands of its security forces, while the region’s journalists live in a state of fear, which negatively affected their journalistic work due to the Turkish threat and targeting of them. Frequent attacks on journalists using drones, especially recently.
The absence of professional media in some regions of Syria
The report indicated the absence of independent and professional media in some regions of Syria, but we noticed that there is a marked development and media trend in some regions, and the restriction and silencing of voices in other regions. It was noted that the abundance of media institutions in NE Syria and the entry of international agencies and television channels with their correspondents, and evidence of this is the presence of more than 90 media institutions operating in the region with a license from the relevant authorities, including local, regional and international, with more than 1,500 journalists and workers working within them.
We notice the opposite in the regions of the Damascus government and the regions of Turkish control and the factions and organizations loyal to them, which are witnessing the absence of external media outlets or correspondent offices within their regions, except for some channels loyal to the policy of those controlling those regions that are allowed to enter and work. The security services also control the Syrian government media, which has been Harnessing it to promote the government’s interests, which had led the state at the previous stage until it reached its current state of decline in all legal, law, political, and economic.
The report added that the Damascus government has legislated laws that violate the most basic principles of human rights and aim to suppress freedom of opinion and expression, and presented examples of these laws, to the point that it holds some journalists accountable and sues them for their posts on Facebook that oppose them.
The Damascus government continues with laws restricting media freedom
In November 2022, the Damascus government issued the new media law, claiming that it “will respond to the requirements of the times, and will be in line with the requirements of the current situation,” and despite calls for its repeal or replacement, it continues to this day.
The government law includes strict laws imposed on journalists, including “the inadmissibility of harming state symbols,” such as the president, the army, and the security services, or “inflammatory materials,” or prohibiting the production, publication, or broadcast of any content that would “offend the heavenly religions, religious beliefs, or Prejudice to national unity, incitement to sectarian or sectarian strife, incitement to commit crimes and acts of violence and terrorism, or incitement to hatred and racism.”
Journalists loyal to and not loyal to the government objected to the closed manner in which the law was discussed at the time, and to the tripartite committee charged with drafting it, which was formed to study the proposals of the first committee, consisting of the Minister of Information, the Minister of Tourism, and the Minister of Communications, and they rejected the law itself.
Report conclusions:
Based on the record during the year 2023, the report concluded that there are parties of the forces in control of some regions, which have violated many of the rules of international human rights law in the regions they control, especially freedom of opinion and expression, such as Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article ( 19-2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
It also violated many rules and laws of international and humanitarian law, most notably Rule 34 of martial law, which requires respect and protection of journalists in conflict regions as long as they do not make direct efforts in combat and military operations.
Recommendations:
At the end of the report, the Free Media Union presented a set of recommendations that would help journalists advance the media, convey reality as it is, and try to rid them of the obstacles and difficulties they face. These recommendations include:
-All parties to the conflict in Syria must immediately release journalists and media workers (arbitrarily detained).
-Revealing the fate of those who were forcibly disappeared, including journalist Farhad Hamo, who was kidnapped on December 15, 2014, on the Qamishlo-Tel Kochar road by ISIS, and allowing the entry of all media outlets and stopping controlling the work of journalists according to the extent of their loyalty to the controlling party.
-Repealing all “security laws” that suppress freedom of opinion and expression throughout the Syrian geography.
-The media should not be used to serve the dominant forces, justify their violations, and falsify the truth.
-The application of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This right includes the freedom to hold opinions without any interference, and to seek, receive and disseminate information and ideas by any means, regardless of borders or geography.”
-At the end of our report we mention that since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in 2011, the number of journalists who have lost their lives in Syria has reached about 763, as a result of the conflict taking place in the Syrian region since the beginning of the crisis until today, and the number of detainees has also reached dozens, not to mention the missing and abducted.
Free Media Union 24-01-2024
