Syria

Muheeb Al-Nawathy, a Palestinian journalist, has gone missing for two weeks in Syria. His family has had no word from him since January 5, nine days after he arrived in Damascus to do research for a book he is writing about Hamas, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Nawathy was due to have returned on January 9 to Norway, where he has resided as a...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on the Syrian authorities to abandon an Internet communications bill that was drafted at the behest of Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri and was approved by the cabinet last week. If adopted by parliament, it is likely to have a serious impact on online free expression, which is already limited in Syria. Syria is on the RSF...

Syrian authorities are till pressing criminal defamation charges against investigative journalists Bassam Ali and Suhaila Ismail. The journalists co-wrote two investigative reports in 2005 and 2006 on corruption and the misuse of public funds in the Public Company for Fertilisers in Syria. They concluded that almost 2 billion Syrian pounds (US$43 million) were misappropriated in one year. The...

Syrian authorities continue to crack down on journalists and human rights activists in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of Bashar Al-Assad’s installation as president, despite government claims of greater freedoms in the past 10 years, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). RSF called for the immediate and unconditional release of journalists Ali Abdallah and Kamal Sheikhou ben Hussein...

Syrian authorities are still holding freelance journalist Ali al-Abdallah even after he completed a 30-month prison sentence in Damascus, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Ali al-Abdallah, who has regularly written for numerous prominent Arabic-language newspapers outside Syria, was supposed to be released on June 17 but a military court informed him that he will be given...

Newspaper journalist Maan Aqil was released from prison Tuesday after the authorities held him for three months without ever charging him, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The national criminal investigations department still has not said why it arrested Aqil at his place of work on November 22. A reporter with the government daily Al-Thawra, he had written articles denouncing...

Syrian reporter Ali Taha was freed on February 7 after 36 days in detention, and cameraman Ali Ahmed a few days later, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The two journalists, who work for the TV station Rotana, were arrested on January 2. “The release of these two journalists is good news, but we condemn that the fact that they were held for a more than month without charge,” Paris...

Syrian reporter Ali Taha and cameraman Ali Ahmed have been detained by the Department of Internal Security since January 2, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The authorities have not said why they were arrested or where they are being held. According to the information available, the security forces arrested Ahmed, who has worked for the TV station Rotana for the past 10 years, while...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expressed concern over Ma’an Aqil, a journalist who was arrested at his office in the Syrian government daily Al-Thawra in Damascus on November 22 by police from the national criminal investigations department, who took him to their headquarters for questioning. The police have not explained why he has been arrested. Two days after his arrest, the Union of Press...

Writer and journalist Michel Kilo, who was released from Adra prison in Damascus at midnight on May 14 on completing a three-year sentence, was immediately taken to the Damascus headquarters of the intelligence services and has been held there ever since, undergoing interrogation, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. His family has told Paris-based RSF its concern is compounded by the...