Although Syrian officials continued to pay lip service to their support for more open media discourse in the country, in practice they failed to exhibit a willingness to tolerate independent news outlets in 2003. President Bashar al-Assad’s first months in office in 2000 witnessed important press freedom gains that included the launching of private and…
New York, August 5, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the Syrian government’s closure of the privately owned satirical weekly Al-Domari. Anwar al-Bunni, a lawyer representing the paper, told CPJ that the government canceled the newspaper’s license on July 31. On Sunday, August 3, the state-owned daily Tishrin reported that the Ministry of Information…
New York, May 27, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the recent release of Ibrahim Hemaidi, the Damascus bureau chief of the pan-Arab, London-based daily Al-Hayat. Hemaidi, who was released on Sunday, May 25, had been detained since December 23, 2002, when he was arrested for writing an article discussing the Syrian government’s alleged…
The Arab world continues to lag behind the rest of the globe in civil and political rights, including press freedom. Despotic regimes of varying political shades regularly limit news that they think will undermine their power. Hopes that a new generation of leaders would tolerate criticism in the press have proved illusory, with many reforms…
While the press is largely free within Israel proper, the country’s military assault on the Occupied Territories fueled a sharp deterioration in press freedom in the West Bank and Gaza during much of 2002. Despite vocal international protest, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) committed an assortment of press freedom abuses, ranging from banning press access…
An ongoing state crackdown against pro-democracy activists continued to stunt what were once promising media reforms introduced in 2000 by Syria’s young president, Bashar al-Assad. For a short time, it appeared that Bashar, who replaced his authoritarian father, the late Hafez al-Assad, in 2000, would inspire a more liberal media and greater government transparency. After…
Your Excellency: We the undersigned join the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in protesting the detention of our colleague Ibrahim Hemaidi, the Damascus bureau chief for the London-based daily Al-Hayat. Syrian authorities arrested Hemaidi on December 23, 2002, because of an article he wrote for Al-Hayat about alleged preparations by the Syrian government for an…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to strongly protest the ongoing detention of Ibrahim Hemaidi, the veteran Damascus bureau chief for the London-based daily Al-Hayat. According to media reports and sources at Al-Hayat, Syrian police detained Hemaidi on December 23 in connection with a December 20 article he wrote. The article discussed the Syrian government’s alleged preparations for a possible influx of Iraqi refugees in the event of a U.S.-led attack on Iraq. The Syrian government has denied the allegation, and Al-Hayat published a statement from the Syrian government to this effect on December 24.