By Lava Selo (Raqqa, Syria) - Some days life seems normal in the city of Raqqa. The markets stay open until the late hours of the evening, people visit cafes and public parks, and playground toys are erected for children in public spaces where families sit on the grass. However, shelling or clashes could begin at any minute. The city […]

The last two years have witnessed the emergence of new media tools that have accompanied the Syrian revolution. These new tools have relied on the efforts of men and women volunteers, and reached its audience through the Internet, thus challenging the government’s monopoly on media. Among the most significant tools are radio stations that broadcast over the internet, offer a […]

Ward al-Assi The controversial television preacher, Sheikh Adnan Arour, 65, has been able to build up a large popular base in Syria using religious programs as a platform for launching vehement attacks against the Syrian regime. He also uses his pulpit for what many have characterized as sectarian incitement against Shia and Alawites.

Sadiq’s face betrays no emotion as he watches the footage of bodies being played on the satellite channel Al-Arabiya. He is silent at first, and when he does speak he repeats the same thing he always tells his friends with whom he goes out to film protests, funeral processions and the devastation left by the shelling of southern Damascus. “If […]

Update: Syrian activist and filmmaker Bassel Shhadeh was killed on May 28, 2012. One of his major works was Saturday Morning Gift, a short film based on an interview with a Lebanese child who survived the 2006 war in Lebanon. The internet is not short of video clips documenting the Syrian revolution. These videos have become an effective tool for […]

Political cartoons in Syria, whether exhibited in newspapers or art galleries owned by the cartoonists themselves, have long been the victim of censorship, which distanced this art from its public. This reality runs against the essence of the art itself: it is enough to know that the word “caricature” is derived from the Latin word carricare or “to attack”, to […]

By Maryam Hasan Syria’s ruler Bashar al-Assad and the nation over which he rules are literally polls apart. Syrians love peace and co-existence while Bashar chooses tanks and fighter jets. The people seek dignity and prosperity, their president prefers fear and poverty. The nation longs for the occupied Golan Heights, the Assads love the status quo with Israel. Yet the […]

We; the poets and writers participating of “The Sixth World Poetic Festival”, held these days from 26 April till 1 May 2011 in Istanbul under the motto “The Spring of the Arab World” to honor the revolutions in the Arab World hereby condemn the massacres committed by the Syrian regime against unarmed civilized people calling peacefully for freedom, dignity, justice, […]

  A tribute to Omar Amiralay February, 10, 2011 (All direct quotes were taken from media statements and interviews with Omar Amiralay) A few days ago, the dust of Damascus embraced the body of the great documentary filmmaker Omar Amiralay who passed away suddenly on February 5, aged 67. Amiralay directed 20 documentary films, all of which captured - through […]

Before 2000, the regime had total control over what was being published and broadcast in Syria. With the spread of satellite channels and later the Internet, journalists and ordinary citizens found a limited space of free expression. At the same time though, the crackdown on reporters continues. Many private media outlets have been shut or subjected to intimidation in recent […]