ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Media professionals in northern Syria’s Aleppo say that Syrian government security services prevent any criticism regarding the work of the government institutions. Journalists say they are questioned and encounter obstacles in their work covering economic crises, corruption, or carrying out polls of residents.
Sherin Malek (a pseudonym), a correspondent in a private agency, said that she has been working in media for 11 years, and the military security apparatus often summoned her in order to question her regarding one of her reports covering poor services in the city.
She abstained from writing reports about the work of the government institutions in Aleppo. “I only cover events held by government institutions,” she added.
Syrian government security branches accuse journalists of either damaging the prestige of the government and its institutions, or dealing with unlicensed parties, according to Malek.
She added that she what she learned in the Faculty of Media, including that “Media is the only authority to convey the citizen’s voice and solve his problems,” were simply mere words.
“Recently, the citizen has been exposed to painful catastrophes that were not reported by any media, because security forces stated that such reports are a disturbance in the interest of the Western agenda,” she added.
Journalists’ reactions regarding interference of the security apparatus in their work differs. However, the majority of them obey the instructions of security forces in order to maintain their work, and adhere to the style of government media in presenting events through the official narrative.
Sa’ad Ahmed (a pseudonym), a journalist working for the Radio and Television Center in Aleppo, said that working in media in Aleppo was completely different to working in other provinces regarding security interference in the correspondents’ works.
“To film overcrowding at a petrol station, I need the approval of the security committee, which sometimes forces us to film secretly,” he added.
“Some correspondents who have support in the security branches work with absolute boldness,” he stated.
Additionally, the security branches “may send their members as correspondents to monitor what is going on among the media workers, since I was once questioned over a report before it was completed,” he said.
He said that questions were directed to him included “Who is supporting you? Who allowed you to prepare a report in front of gas stations?”
Journalist Diyaa Bedaiwi, editor-in-chief of the online newspaper Aks al-Itijah (Reverse Direction) in Aleppo, said that the Ministry of Media had imposed on all licensed websites that each published video should not exceed one minute.
“The Ministry stresses that any correspondent who is not a member of the Union of Journalists should not be accredited,” he told North Press.
“Media in Syria no longer serves the citizen or exposes corruption,” he said.
Syrian President Bashar Assad said, during a meeting with the new ministry in early September, that “fighting corruption must be comprehensive and through the media.”
“But the censors see me as the corrupt one if I publish anything about the corruption issue,” Bedaiwi stated.
He also said that he may be forced to suspend his site and find another job “if the ministry continues to restrict journalism by requesting security approvals.”