The Syrian Future Movement and the Media

The Syrian Future Movement recognizes the significance and risks of the media as a source of information and news dissemination from various sources to the public, in a process considered the fastest in human history.

The Syrian Future Movement views the media as a double-edged sword, with its ability to direct public attention to specific issues, making them central and significant. Thus, its impact can be either positive or negative on individuals and societies.

The Syrian Future Movement stresses the media’s role in raising public awareness about social, environmental, health, political, and economic issues that affect people’s lives and realities.

The Syrian Future Movement believes that the media’s most significant task lies in its role in monitoring the government, institutions, and all state sectors, serving as a key to their accountability when corruption or misconduct occurs.

The Syrian Future Movement considers traditional media, especially print, of great importance. Despite the revolution in contemporary media, traditional media retains its ability to balance and adhere to narrative standards, which often bind it more than contemporary media does, making it more credible and impactful.

The Syrian Future Movement sees that audio media, which provides information and news in audio format through radio programs, interviews, podcasts, and more, still impacts a broad audience that respects and follows it. Therefore, it warrants development and activation on a larger scale.

The Syrian Future Movement sees that visual media offers a more effective experience for the audience today and requires controls to operate within (possibly activating a charter of honor for national media), proposing an initiative by the Syrian Future Movement to advance Syrian media in a way that aligns with our society, customs, traditions, and history.

The Syrian Future Movement places great importance on contemporary media that uses digital technology, capable of distributing information quickly and enabling the public to share and rally support for specific issues that go beyond government and authority monitoring.

The Syrian Future Movement does not view the current media chaos as a fruit of social media openness and ease! Instead, it reflects the extent and space of freedoms (unregulated), enjoyed by peoples and modern generations away from the control and surveillance of regimes, and as an escape from repression imposed over many decades.

The Syrian Future Movement believes that managing media chaos depends primarily on public awareness, followed by the state’s moral responsibility in managing and directing the media sector and their ability to overcome the negative objectives of this chaos and create a national media alternative to counteract today’s expansion in modern media revolution.

The Syrian Future Movement sees the need for a confederation of old and contemporary media, emerging in a new form that creates a positive evolution in media influence on a country that is exhausted and torn.

The Syrian Future Movement believes in the importance of state support for all types of media (provided it is not biased or directed), supports its rationalization, and rejects restrictions on it under any pretext.

The Syrian Future Movement believes in the public’s right to access information and to assess it without custodial and authoritative evaluation.

The Syrian Future Movement considers privacy a fundamental right, and the media must respect this right, creating a balance between the public’s right to information and individuals’ right to privacy.

The Syrian Future Movement believes in individuals’ right to legal protection and recourse to the law for compensation regarding privacy violations and defamation.

The Syrian Future Movement emphasizes the need to study and understand the laws that restrict certain media excesses, such as defamation, abuse, and incitement, so they do not become a reason or pretext for restricting media freedom itself or its direction by the authority.

The Syrian Future Movement calls for the establishment of a general union that brings together all media professionals in Syria, enjoying complete independence from any authority, as a self-regulator of the media and a protector of media professionals’ rights.

The Syrian Future Movement adopts a comprehensive approach in its support for both private and public media, enhancing balance and ensuring diversity of views and directions in the media landscape, preventing it from being monopolized by certain individuals or institutions.

The Syrian Future Movement aims to eventually own media platforms and stations in Syria, such as Syrian Future TV and radio, broadcasting from within Syria to all its territories, addressing all Syrians across their different spectrums, as well as a Syrian Future newspaper and online publication focusing on people’s issues and community affairs.

The Syrian Future Movement sees the necessity for the media to adhere to ethical and legal standards and to respect individuals and communities.

The Syrian Future Movement views media freedom as an integral part of the fundamental right to freedom of expression, recognized by UN General Assembly Resolution 59 adopted in 1946, as well as Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).