Syrian media liberalisation causes a stir: Nicholas Blanford reports on new and welcome liberalisation moves in Syria's media industry, previously one of the most enthusiastic proponents of censorship in the region.
DERIDED AS VACUOUS STATE-RUN mouthpieces, Syria's media is undergoing the biggest shake-up in decades. Red lines are blurring and taboos receding as journalists are encouraged to broaden their coverage from state-inspired propaganda to harder political and social issues.The driving force behind the recent changes is Mehdi Dakhlallah, the former editor of Al Baath newspaper who was appointed minister of information during a cabinet reshuffle in October of last year.
"This is new, this is very new," said Ziad Haydar, Damascus correspondent of the Al Arabiya Arabic satellite channel and Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper.
Syrian newspapers usually echo official thought and follow the daily activities of senior regime figures with slavish attention. Independent writers would look to the more liberal press in neighbouring Lebanon to publish articles which risked censorship in Syria or landing their authors in trouble with the authorities. But the extent of the changes breezing through Syria's media is perhaps best illustrated by the publication of an article in November which carried sharp and unprecedented criticism of the mukhabarat, or internal intelligence service.
Independent Syrian journalist Hakim Al Baba wrote the article in response to a statement issued by political activist Nabil Fayyad on his release from a month-long detention.
In his statement, published in the Syrian media, Fayyad said, "It became clear to me from conversations with the other detainees that the moral and civilised treatment I was receiving was not given only to me because I was educated, but was being given to all the people ... This made me feel that this man's [Syrian President Bashar Al Assad] existence is enough to protect us and our aspirations for freedom and true democracy."
For Al Baba, who twice in the past has been summoned and interrogated by the mukhabarat, it was too much.
SCATHING CRITIQUE
"This communique ... reminds me of prisoners who are taken into the prison yard so they can shout to their jailers about how they will redeem them with [their] soul and blood," Al Baba wrote. "The only thing missing from this caricature was a call to all residents [to come] and enjoy this kind of original and relaxing security tourism."
He went on to describe his experiences at the hands of the mukhabarat, blaming Dakhlallah for informing on him when the minister was editor of Al Baath.
Al Baba sent the article to Lebanon's leading An-Nahar newspaper which often publishes his work. He also sent a copy to Syria's Tishreen newspaper. The editor of Tishreen forwarded it to Dakhlallah.
However, instead of rejecting the article, Dakhlallah surprised Al Baba by approving its publication in Tishreen.
"I think Dakhlallah wanted it published in Syria because it would have more impact here," Al Baba said.
The scathing critique of Fayyad's statement and the mukhabarat spurred a brief but spirited debate in the pages of the Syrian press.
The state's stranglehold on the media began to loosen in the wake of Bashar Al Assad becoming president in 2000, heralding a faltering process of reform. In 2002, the first privately-owned political weekly, Abyad wa Aswad (White and Black), was granted a licence and has since become a keen critic of government performance.
"The general trend is for change now ... If we want this country to progress, we have to focus on the bad points," said Ayman Al Daquq, editor of Abyadh wa Aswad.
The number of foreign magazines and newspapers distributed in Syria has almost doubled. In 2003, four private radio stations took to the airwaves, although they can only broadcast music and advertisements; politics and news items are not permitted.
English-language publications have emerged. One of them, Syria Today, focuses on social and economic issues and the reform effort.
But the pace of change increased from October following a cabinet reshuffle. Even the appointment of Dakhlallah was seen as a sign of the changes to come. While editor of Al Baath, Dakhlallah wrote an unprecedented article calling for the abolition of article 8 of the Syrian constitution which gives preferential status to the ruling Baath party.
In response, Abdel-Halim Khaddam, the powerful long-serving vice-president, declared that article 8 was "holy", fuelling speculation that Dakhlallah would be sacked. Instead, two weeks later, he was handed the information ministry.
The new interior minister, Ghazi Kenaan, a former general in military intelligence, voiced what most Syrians thought when he declared the local press "unreadable". Dakhlallah began telephoning journalists and urging them to adopt a bolder approach, taking the traditionally cautious Syrian reporters by surprise.
Haydar of Al Arabiya said that for the first time he is free to record television interviews with people from banned political parties on previously taboo subjects.
"I don't feel the same tension while working anymore. I can go on air at any moment and talk about anything," he said.
MEDIA RESTRUCTURING
The information minister is supervising the restructuring of some media institutions, combining the over-staffed organisations that publish the Tishreen and Al Thawra dailies with the aim of making a more streamlined media organisation capable of competing with private sector publications. Similarly, the competition provided by Arabic satellite channels, such as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, has led to Syria's satellite channel being made independent of the two terrestrial television stations.
Reporters at Al Baath have been told they can no longer copy articles straight from the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency. Al Thawra is building a fresh reputation for running hard-hitting stories on social issues. Meanwhile, workshops are being held to train a new generation of journalists.
"There is a lack of information of a high standard in Syria," said Kinda Kanbar, Syria Today's managing director. "We have been told that we can write whatever we want."
Ministers are now obliged to talk to the media. In December, Kenaan, the interior minister, gave a statement to the press within an hour of a bomb blast that almost killed a Palestinian militant, an unusually swift reaction from a traditionally cautious regime.
The changes are like a jolt of electricity to the older generation of reporters who are finding that holding onto their jobs will depend on future performance.
"The old school (of reporters) can't understand the change. Now the good are being singled out from the bad," said Al Daquq, who says he recruited his staff straight from the journalism school at Damascus University because they are "more open and braver" than the older generation.
STILL OFF-LIMITS
In the past, foreign newspapers were banned from newsstands if they contained critical reports of Syria. But the incidents of censorship have declined, said Sadeq Al Azm, a professor of philosophy currently lecturing in The Netherlands.
"I have been able to buy the papers everyday including editions with news on Syria and Iraq that would have been censored or delayed before," he said. "Censorship is much laxer than before."
Still, the recent progress in liberalising the media is due to the initiative of individual politicians rather than an institutionalised attempt at reform. For example, while the existing publications law, which was passed in 2001, opened up private sector publishing, it forbids opposition members and independent activists from launching their own newspapers. The law, Decree 50, is also vague about what subjects remain off-limits, such as criticism of the military and the presidency.
Critics note that Abyadh wa Aswad, while regularly taking the government to task, is owned by Bilal Turkmani, the son of the Syrian defence minister, Hassan Turkmani, which gives the magazine a veneer of official approval at odds with its independent status.
"What we have now is a condition of benign tolerance, not legal acceptance. The existing legal framework is, in fact, quite restrictive, and unless it is improved drastically, no true gains can be said to have been made," said Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian social analyst and coordinator of the Tharwa project, which seeks to raise awareness of minority groups in the Middle East.
But Dakhlallah insists the changes to the media are not his personal initiative but part of the government's overall reform package.
"The government of Syria works as a team," he said. "One minister might play a bigger role than another but it's within the general policy of the government."
Indeed, he argued that political reforms so far have outstripped the pace of media reform. "I hope that the media reforms can keep up," he said.
But Al-Baba, whose article on the mukhabarat helped highlight the recent changes to the media, remains sceptical of the government's intentions.
"The improvements have come from external pressure," he said. "There are some simple features [of reform] but there is no strategic development."
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| Author: | Blanford, Nicholas |
|---|---|
| Publication: | The Middle East |
| Geographic Code: | 7SYRI |
| Date: | Feb 1, 2005 |
| Words: | 1428 |
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