(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has welcomed the 9 May 2005 creation of Hurriyat (Freedom), the first independent media union in Syria, and urged the authorities to officially recognise it. “Hurriyat could play a key role in the liberalisation of the media and the decriminalisation of press offences, which we have been demanding for years,” the organisation […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has welcomed the 9 May 2005 creation of Hurriyat (Freedom), the first independent media union in Syria, and urged the authorities to officially recognise it.
“Hurriyat could play a key role in the liberalisation of the media and the decriminalisation of press offences, which we have been demanding for years,” the organisation said.
The new centre has been founded by a number of journalists and human rights activists, such as cartoonist Ali Farzat, writer and political commentator Michel Kilo, and lawyer Anwar Bunni.
“Since the promulgation, in September 2001, of a new press law, the Syrian authorities have stepped up a crackdown on the media. Recent events confirm this total control of the press and the need to create a Syrian press freedom organisation such as Hurriyat,” RSF said.
The latest incident of censorship occurred on 11 May, when the May issue of the privately-owned financial monthly “Al-Mal” (“Money”) was seized for dealing with sensitive issues. Articles included an interview with the former finance minister, Issam Zaïm, headlined, “The new course taken in the relationship between the Syrian pound to the dollar is worrying”, a letter sent to President Bashar al Assad by an entrepreneur whose business was seized by the ruling Baath Party in the 60s and a piece about corruption in the private sector.
In another case, the Syrian authorities halted a series of four programmes about the Syrian press put out by US Arabic-language television “Al Hurra” (“The Free One”). The day after the 19 April broadcast of the first programme live from Damascus, “Al Hurra” announced that it was cancelling the rest of the programmes following the “harassment” of its team in the capital. On the first programme, guests freely discussed press legislation and limits to free expression.
Elsewhere, on 5 May, a defamation trial opened against journalist and writer Hakim Al Baba after he wrote several articles criticising Imad Al Shuaibi, a doctor of political science known to be an unofficial government spokesman. Al Shuaibi is seeking five million Syrian pounds in damages (approx. US$100,000 dollars).
The Syrian secret services have summoned Al Baba several times before for his articles, which regularly appear in various Arabic newspapers and use humour to criticise the Syrian political system.
