The Syrian Media Reality Outside the Control of the Syrian Regime

Media is a form of human interaction responsible for disseminating news and conveying information to individuals. Its ownership varies, including public, private, official, and unofficial entities.
The media presents various topics to the audience, primarily news, entertainment, and other informative and relevant subjects.
The recent digital revolution has significantly expanded the media’s reach.

The Importance of Media in the Syrian Arena:
Media is one of the most important tools for conveying the suffering of the Syrian people and expressing their demands and rights.
It plays a vital role in documenting, raising awareness, inciting action, organizing, influencing, and changing the Syrian reality. Some key roles of the media include:

• Documenting violations and crimes committed by the Syrian regime and its allies against the Syrian people, highlighting victims, martyrs, wounded, detainees, displaced, refugees, missing, and forgotten individuals.
  Thus, the media creates a historical, legal, and humanitarian archive of the Syrian revolution and the tragedies, injustice, and oppression suffered by Syrians.
• Educating the Syrian people and the world about the political, military, economic, social, cultural, health, and environmental situation in Syria, and the issues, challenges, opportunities, and risks faced.
  The media spreads information, knowledge, expertise, opinions, ideas, initiatives, solutions, and innovations that contribute to enlightening and educating the Syrian people and the international community. Its greatest role lies in enhancing dialogue, understanding, cooperation, solidarity, and integration among Syrians and between Syrians and the world.
• Inciting the Syrian people and the world to struggle and spread the values, principles, goals, visions, and dreams sought by the Syrian people. The media motivates and encourages the Syrian people and the world to support, assist, protect, and succeed the Syrian revolution.
• Organizing the Syrian people and the world into active bodies, organizations, institutions, and movements.

Types of Current Media in Syria:
Various types of media differ in form, content, and audience. Some common types of Syrian media include:

• Print media: Uses paper, ink, and printing to display information, such as newspapers, magazines, books, and publications. Despite being traditional, it retains significance and credibility in societies.
• Visual media: Uses images and sound to display information, like television, cinema, video, and films. It’s modern and appealing due to its impact and diversity.
• Audio media: Uses sound only to display information, like radio, broadcasting, and podcasts. It’s a middle ground between print and visual media, suited for those who prefer listening over reading or watching.
• Electronic media: Uses the internet and technology to display information, such as websites, social media, apps, and forums. It’s the newest, fastest, and broadest media type, allowing easy and quick access to information.
• Personal media: Through social media platforms, personal pages often surpass traditional media in viewership as they appeal to a wider audience.

Difficulties:
The Syrian media faces challenges not only from the Syrian regime and its forces but also from various organizations and powers controlling the interior of Syria.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights documented the death of approximately 695 media personnel, including foreign journalists, from March 15, 2011, to early May 2019. The Syrian regime and its local and foreign militias were responsible for the majority of these deaths.

Conclusion:
The above illustrates the importance and necessity of media and its danger in exposing corruption and de facto authorities. The Syrian regime’s areas are the most restrictive towards media and journalists.
The tightening and drying up of non-personal, institutional media agencies and channels, which adhere to an institutional workflow, are alarming as they represent an official suppression of the Syrian people’s voice for freedom and justice. Personal media pages, regardless of their influence, cannot replace the importance and necessity of diverse media institutions that convey the multifaceted Syrian reality.

Therefore, in the Syrian Future Movement, we emphasize the utmost importance of the current revolutionary media reality, along with the necessity to maintain media diversity, which drives change and soft reform through well-planned strategic initiatives.

References:

• Omar Idlibi, “Media in Syria: Challenges of Reality and the Future,” Harmoon Center.
• Abbas Ali Musa, “Media Work in Northern Syria,” 2017, Harmoon Center.
• Mohammed Joudat Nasser (1998), “Propaganda, Advertising and Public Relations,” Dar Majdalawi for Publishing and Distribution, Amman, page 15.
• Syrian Prints Archive – A Singular Place for Syrian Publications
• Reporters Without Borders: Journalists in Syria Suffer Under the Horrors of War
• The Syrian Opposition Media: New Experiences and Major Challenges
• [From the Clutches of Power to Exile: The Syrian Media and Its Transformations (2000- 2023)](sy