Syria Today | Looking for Recognition

Looking for Recognition

By Obaida Hamad
Photo Carole al-Farah

The rise of the internet in Syria has brought with it a rapid expansion of news websites, many of which have used the extra freedoms of cyberspace to push the boundaries of what can and cannot be reported in the print and broadcast media.

While traditional media sources have always been tightly regulated and journalists can, in extreme cases, be imprisoned for publishing articles which are deemed damaging to the state, websites have generally faced a lot less in the way of restrictions and government interference. For the past decade any Syrian with an opinion and access to a modem has been able to start up his or her own online publishing company. The freewheeling style of journalism adopted at many of the sites has proved highly popular and online news sources such as Syria News and Cham Press have quickly built up a large readership grateful for an alternative to state-run media outlets.

“Internet and e-publishing have become very important for covering issues which affect the daily lives of Syrians,” Mufeed Kamal Adeen, a Syrian magazine publisher who recently launched his first news website Al-Ra’e, said.

The power of this new media was brought into focus six months ago when Hana, a major Syrian processed food company, found itself losing tens of millions of Syrian pounds in revenue after damaging rumours about the quality of its products appeared online. The allegations, denied by the firm, prompted both the government and the company’s management to hold a joint press conference reassuring consumers that the products were fit for consumption.

Draft law completed

Almost a decade since the boom in online publishing began, current affairs websites in Syria continue to work outside any legal umbrella. Authorities have been discussing a dedicated e-publishing law for the past two years. Last month, the Minister of Communications and Technology Imad Sabouni announced that the law had been finalised, but did not provide any details on just what it might contain.

Many online media sites initially welcomed the lack of official attention. There is, however, a growing consensus within the industry that given the media working environment in Syria, web-based news organisations and their reporters need to be granted some official form of recognition. Media observers also say the Hana article highlights serious questions about the quality of reporting by some online news sites which frequently publish and reprint articles with little in the way of fact checking.

“There is certainly a strong argument to be made for an e-publishing law,” Khalid Moussa, an independent journalist who worked at Syria News when it was set up in 2004, said. “I can see how it would be healthy to have a law that makes publishers responsible for the news they put up, especially if it makes them check their facts and sources properly.”

Taleb Kadi Amin, a former deputy information minister who now serves as director of the Arab League’s media training centre in Damascus, said the time had come for sensible regulation which promotes both media freedom and responsible journalism.

“Today it is necessary for government involvement in this,” he said. “The Hana problems have made that unavoidably clear. But any new law must aim to organise the process of online publishing, not to limit it.”

No legal recognition

Another major problem plaguing the online media sector is the status it affords journalists. Journalists working for news sites generally have no official contracts with their companies, are not issued with press credentials and cannot formally access information or attend state press conferences because they are not members of the Journalists’ Union.

“We have no rights,” Fadi Aboud, a young online reporter, said. “We don’t even have a press card that allows us to conduct interviews or talk to normal people or officials. I want to be a member of the Journalists’ Union, but I need to have an official contract from my company which does not officially exist.”

Mazen Darwish, founder of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, an unlicensed media advocacy group, said he is, in principle, against any kind of media regulation. That said, some form of ‘light regulation’ allowing journalists to be officially recognised would be useful.

“In principle I believe the internet should be a free space and that the purpose of media laws is to restrict that freedom,” he said. “But I can see that there are benefits to having laws that give e-publishing some kind of official status.”

Efforts to regulate the online media sector have been slow, largely uncoordinated and have not involved the Ministry of Information which is responsible for licensing and overseeing other media outlets. The Ministry of Telecommunications has taken on the role of internet regulator, blocking sites that publish material deemed unacceptable. When a site is blocked the site’s administrators do not have to be officially informed or provided with a reason for the ban, unlike print or broadcast media outlets.

“If the Ministry of Information is involved in regulating the sector, that would mean that if there is an issue with an article, the publisher or journalist would be able to discuss it with the ministry,” Darwish said. “Now, if there is a problem, the first you know about it is when you find your site blocked and you are not told why.”

Details unclear

Details of what the online media law will contain are not known, but some early indications suggest it will entail a voluntary system of registration with the Ministry of Information, by which sites can choose to be officially recognised. Another clause proposed is that sites nominate someone who is ultimately responsible for content.

According to some involved in online publishing, the editors of various leading news sites have been invited to take part in drafting the legislation, although reportedly few took up the offer. With details of the draft law unknown, there remains a real concern that any new rules will attempt to impose restrictions on websites to effectively bring them in line with print publications which are more tightly regulated and scrutinised.

“Some editors are worried any law will just squeeze them,” Moussa said. “Yes, the law would legalise them and give them safeguards, but they worry it will also restrict their development. If it’s a modern law, if it’s a clear law that lays out people’s rights and responsibilities, I think it will receive industry support.”

Others remain optimistic, whatever the new law eventually contains.

“It isn’t possible to draw up a law that restricts internet freedom,” Amin said. “There is no way of controlling the media today as if you are living in Eastern Europe during the Cold War.”

A worst case scenario for Amin would be one where the new law makes it necessary to apply for a licence to obtain a ‘.sy’ domain in a highly regulated and politicised process.

“If that happens everyone will just go and get ‘.com’ or ‘.net’ domains and they will continue to write exactly what they want,” he said. “No Syrian law can control that. Sites are already blocked and people work out how to access them very quickly. Facebook is blocked, but it remains one of the most viewed sites in Syria.”