Press freedom in Post-Assad Syria

How do you build a free press after more than 50 years of dictatorship?

On the 8th of December 2024 the Assad-regime fell after more than 50 years of dictatorship. The country suddenly opened up, for both local and foreign journalists, to finally report on what has and is happening in the country. But this doesn’t mean press freedom is automatically achieved. How do you build a healthy journalist sector after decades of repression? What are the challenges? And how can we help journalists in Syria in their pursuit of a free press?

A free press and a healthy journalistic sector are essential for building democracy. Our panelists will discuss the state of journalism in Syria today, and how the journalist sector can move towards more freedom of press. What is the effect of decades of repression on the formal training of journalists? Which laws created during the Assad-era are still in place? How do journalists navigate these challenges, and how to deal with the new government? And how can we create cross-border networks to help each other?

In this programme: Mutasim Khalaf is a Syrian-Palestinian writer and journalist living in Damascus, the co-founder of The Independent Journalists’ Syndicate in Syria (SIJ) and the editor-in-chief of the Syrian-Palestian platform Miftah. Manar Shourbaji is a Syrian journalist living in Beirut, the co-founder of The Independent Journalists’ Syndicate in Syria (SIJ), and works as a reporter for the Lebanese platform Megaphone. Mais Katt is an award-winning Syrian investigative journalist and trainer living in Haarlem, and is the editor-in-chief of the network Women Who Won the War. She has extensive experience in covering the war in Syria, and focuses now on training journalists in Syria. Lees meer Syria: the forbidden witnesses of the Assad regime

Based on documents and exclusive first-hand accounts, “Syria: the forbidden witnesses of the Assad regime” delves into the heart of the control, terror and elimination of independent journalism critical of the regime that characterised the methodical violence inflicted on those whose job it was to document the reality of life in Syria.