Syria: Effectively Oppressing the Affected

 Has the Syrian government been effective in controlling and influencing the media? Yes. Has the Syrian government been effective in maintaining their oppressive state because of their control over the media? Yes. Interestingly enough, Syria provides the right to free speech in their constitution! So how are they (the government and the government’s allies) getting away with all the unjust censorship they employ? Well, they arrest journalists, forbid foreign journalists from reporting inside the country, almost all the newspapers are run and owned by the regime or it’s allies and they forcibly restrict coverage of the ongoing crisis, just to name a few. In this post I will discuss the extent of effectiveness the Syrian government has had in recent years on censoring, and thereby controlling, the media.

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The Syrian Civil War has been an ongoing crisis since 2011. It has been reported that since the beginning of this conflict over 100,000 Syrians have been killed. Yet, the Syrian government has been doing everything possible to keep news of the conflict from being reported nationally and internationally. Falsities about the war and propaganda are prevalent throughout the country and are being propelled by regime-run outlets and sources. The reporters from these state-run stations and the like continually call the opposition forces “terrorists” and “radicals”. Al-Assad has also instituted a “foreign media blackout”. This “blackout” has prohibited almost all foreign journalists from entering, and therefore reporting on, Syria. In 2012 the government offered 70 visas to foreign journalists, however the stipulation for these visas was that the reporters were required to be escorted around by representatives from the state. These representatives also determined what the journalists could cover. The effectiveness of this ban has been a success for the government because it has thwarted the amount of information coming out about the seriousness of the civil war and therefore has prevented the truth for circulating inside the country in addition to outside the country.

Civil War Destruction 

An example of national journalists being oppressed can be seen in an incident that occurred in February of 2012. Government agents invaded the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, which is a NGO based in Damascus. During this raid the government forces arrested the head of the organization and 13 other employees. Another incident of journalist persecution took place in July of that year. This incident consisted of a radio tower being demolished in Aleppo. The government perceivably saw this radio station as a threat because university students and staff members created it.

 In class we have seen how large a role ownership can play in allowing the government to censor pertinent news. Syria is an example of this. In the region the government and “allied business men” and responsible for the ownership of most newspaper publishing houses and they use this control to greatly control the media. The censorship of foreign and domestic news is controlled and monitored by the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Culture and National Guidance. The regime propagates their control by also placing heavy censorship on T.V. networks and the radio. When the almost the entirety of mass media is being censored it is easy to see how simple it is for the Syrian government to keep its peoples ignorant of reality.

What makes the Syrian so “successful” in influencing and controlling the media is their consistent suppression of basic human rights (i.e. the right to factual knowledge etc.) with little to no consequences. As the civil war wages on it will be interesting to see if the Syrian government maintains their power or if it falters in the age of uprisings as it has in other MENA countries.

 

The Power of Facebook: Is it all Positive?

Social media, namely Facebook, in the Middle East and North Africa are used just like they are used here in the United States. The people of the MENA region use these sites for communicating with family and friends, as a source for news, as well as a place to connect and engage with strangers who may share similar passions or beliefs. However, Facebook has played a role in some MENA countries that it has not played here in the U.S, and that role being promoting democracy in countries that have seen intense media censorship enacted by their governments.

 

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In Tunisia Facebook played a vital part in the Revolution in that it “organized and energized young revolutionaries.” Now, several years later, it is still an integral part of the Tunisian media landscape. As of 2012, Tunisia had 3,134,500 Facebook users, which is 29.6% of the country’s population. However, Facebook has become less of a revolutionary tool and is increasingly being used as a place to catch up on national and international news. This is not an ideal situation because, even though Facebook has done a lot of great things for Tunisia, it is not a credible news source. Anyone who has Facebook will be able to point to at least one instant where they read something that was false and/or posted something they believed to be true and later found out was not. They would also be able to tell you how fast and how wide the spreading of said false story was. Once an article or online posting of any sort makes it’s way on to Facebook it is nearly impossible to stop the diffusion. With that being said, it is easy to see how in a place like Tunisia who relies heavily on Facebook for it’s information can fall victim to the wide dispersal of falsities and how in a developing democracy this can be incredibly detrimental.

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Like Tunisia, social media is playing a crucial role in Egyptian life during and post- revolution. Today, Egypt has the largest amount of Facebook users in the Arab world. A report published in August 2013 related that 12 million Facebook users in Egypt are under 30 years old, with 81% of the total amount of female users being under 30. I found this statistic to be fascinating because according to an article published by BBC in November 2013, Egypt is “the worst country for women’s rights in the Arab world.” However, Facebook analysts have said that female Facebook users in Egypt are more culture-orientated than Egyptian male users. I hope that these statics mean that, as time moves forward, Facebook will allow Egyptian women to begin to fight for equal rights and use social media to propel and spread the word of their in a similar way that it was used to propel the Arab Spring.