The detention of journalists Bakr Qassem and Karam Kulliyeh raises concerns over increasing repression of press freedom in Northern Syria.
This statement was originally published on gc4hr.org on 21 October 2024.
The targeting campaign against independent journalists in the northern countryside of Aleppo continues, and restrictions on public freedoms, including freedom of expression and freedom of the press, are increasing.
Local sources confirmed that journalist Bakr Qassem has been released after being detained for a week by local authorities in Northern Aleppo, Syria. Qassem is a freelance photojournalist reporting for several local and international news agencies, including Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Turkiye’s state-run Anadolu Agency. He has covered many phases of the conflict in Syria, in addition to the deadly earthquake of February 2023 in southern Turkiye.
On 26 August 2024, Qassem was arrested by the military police of the Syrian National Army (SNA) at a checkpoint in the town of Al-Bab, with his wife Nabiha Taha, also a journalist, as they were on their way home from covering a nearby exhibition. Local sources report that Qassem was dragged and beaten upon asking the reason for his arrest.
While Taha was released within hours after her arrest and interrogation, Qassem remained in custody and was handed over to the Turkish intelligence in the village of Hawar Kilis. Local sources describe Hawar Kilis as a centre of military operations used by Turkiye to manage its areas of influence in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
The police refused to inform Taha of the charges against Qassem and denied him access to legal representation. They also raided their home later on, confiscating camera equipment, documents, and personal belongings.
The arrest of Qassem sparked a strong solidarity campaign initiated by civil society activists, including journalists in the region. On 28 August 2024, Taha along with other journalists in Azaz, a SNA-controlled city in Northwest Syria, organised a protest demanding his immediate release.
Qassem’s arrest is part of an ongoing crackdown on journalists in Northern Syria. Another journalist, Karam Kulliyeh, was arrested on 26 June 2024 by the military police in the city of Azaz, located north of Aleppo Governorate, who took him to an unknown location, after they beat and insulted him.
Reliable press reports stated that he was also handed over to the Turkish intelligence in the village of Hawar Kilis. After being detained for more than two and a half months, he was released on 24 September 2024, after many civil society activists and journalists expressed solidarity with him.
The two arrests were arbitrary, as they occurred without any judicial order, and included enforced disappearance without allowing either of them to contact family members or a lawyer, and the nature of the charges against them was not known to them.
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) is deeply concerned about the increasing number of arbitrary arrests of journalists in the northern countryside of Aleppo in Syria, which is controlled by Turkey. The targeting of journalists must stop, and local authorities should refrain from practices of arbitrary arrest and detention, which blatantly violate journalists’ right to freedom of expression.
GCHR declares its full solidarity with independent journalists in Northern Syria and calls on the local authorities – whether Syrian or Turkish – not to target them anymore. The authorities must respect public freedoms including freedom of the press and ensure that journalists and media workers are able to carry out their legitimate work in a safe environment without any risks, including arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance.
