| December 2008 - News |
| December 2008 |
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Syrian filmmaker Mohammad Malas banned from overseas travel Acclaimed Syrian filmmaker Mohammad Malas has been banned from overseas travel, the National Organisation of Human Rights in Syria (NOHRS) announced on November 2. Malas, along with author and journalist Khaled Smaysem and researcher, translator and teacher Hassan Abbas, are among a list of Syrian citizens banned from overseas travel by Syrian security services released on September 19, the NOHRS said. The group said Smaysem was informed of the travel ban against him on his recent return from the US, where he took part in an international exchange programme. Smaysem had been forced to close his Internet news site Syrialife a few months earlier. The NOHRS also said Syrian authorities banned Abbas from travelling to France to attend a seminar on European-Mediterranean cultural cooperation on October 31. Malas, 63, was prevented from travelling to Paris for work late last month, the group said. NOHRS labelled the measures “illegal and unconstitutional because they were taken by the security services and not the judicial authorities”. Malas, currently working on a children’s film for Al Jazeera television, told Damascus’ AFP that he met with the security services in Damascus to discuss his position on freedom of speech and human rights. His films include Ahlam el Madina (Dreams of the City, 1984) and Al-Leyl (The Night, 1992), regarded as two of Syria’s greatest contemporary films. Both have won regional and international acclaim. |