Reporters Without Borders has declared Syria as one of the world’s most dangerous regions for press freedom, ranking it 175th out of 180 countries in the 2023 Press Freedom Index. The organization published a report coinciding with World Press Freedom Day, which is celebrated annually on May 3rd. RSF stated that there is no free, independent press in Syria.
“Reporters are denied access to entire swaths of the territory. The regime treats the media as a tool for disseminating Baathist ideology and excludes any form of pluralism, driving many journalists into self-imposed exile,” RSF said.
The Action Group for the Palestinians of Syria noted that it recorded 18 Palestinian media professionals and activists who were killed in various parts of Syria in 2022 while covering the country’s humanitarian and political conditions. Additionally, many Palestinian journalists and writers remain incarcerated in the Assad regime’s prisons and detention centers without knowledge of their fate or whereabouts.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), in its most recent annual report on major violations against media professionals in Syria, 715 journalists and media workers have been killed since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, including 52 who died under torture.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
