Media and Culture

Expenditure on advertising remains very low in Syria

Speculation, mystery and intrigue characterised the reports surfacing in the media and around political circles in Damascus in the lead up to this month’s UN report into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, expected to be released on June 10.

One year after the Syrian army completed its withdrawal from Lebanon, the Lebanese press, one of the compelling forces behind a wave of pressure that bore down on Damascus in the wake of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, have changed their tune.

In what it called "an unprecedented step for the Arab World," State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli offered the US’ condolences to the family and admirers of Syrian poet and playwright Mohammad Al-Maghut, who died of heart failure at his home near Homs on April 3.

Syria’s recently appointed Information Minister Mohsen Bilal met with the Syrian Private Press Team (SPPT), a coalition of six Syrian private media companies, on March 15 and urged them to adhere to "the tradition of professionalism" in the interest of “public opinion and the homeland.”

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on March 30 appointed former Culture Minister Najah Al-Attar as a second vice president, the official news agency SANA reported. Ms Attar is the first woman to hold such a high position in Syria.

Syria's first free zone for media was officially launched on March 12, with the Information Ministry and head of the Syrian Free Zones revealing they had received 17 applications from private Syrian media companies to set up in the area of land on the ...

The Damascus correspondent for the Lebanese newspaper An Nahar has been released on bail after being detained by Syrian security services for four days beginning March 2, the day after a report by the journalist on appointments in Syria's intelligence services was published.

Two private radio stations were awarded broadcast licenses on September 26 by the Syrian Prime Minister Naji Otri.

The Minister of Information Mahdi Dakhlallah opened a Syrian Information Centre in central London on January 19.

The first Syrian privately owned satellite television channel, Cham, which will present mainly social features and drama, with a limited scope for news and interviews, has started test broadcasting from Dubai in preparation to begin broadcasting officially on September 1.

Syria’s came under renewed US and UN pressure early June over accusations that its intelligence services were still operating in Lebanon following the assassination of a prominent ant-Syrian journalist in Beirut.

In a move to improve its relations with Arab and international media, the Syrian government has created a new position of official government spokesman, appointing Mahir Mojtahid, the current Secretary General of the Syrian cabinet, to fill the position.

The Ministry of Information has approved the set-up of a Foreign Press Correspondents Association.

On the occasion of the celebration of the "Correctionist Movement" on November 16, Mahdi Dakhlallah, the new minister of information said of the Syrian media that it was going through a new era, in which it was moving from being a "guided media" to an "endeavouring media".

Teshreen and al-Thawra, two of the three national dailies are merging.

Reporters without Borders (RWB), a French-based press freedom watch organisation, has published its second worldwide annual index, ranking countries according to their tolerance towards press freedom.

Al-Domari, the first independent publication to be authorised in 2001, after thirty years of state control, has been shut down. Meanwhile, there also some more positive signs.

The Syrian authorities freed Ibrahim Hamidi, the Damascus bureau chief of London-based daily al-Hayat on May 25. Hamidi had been arrested last December on charges of writing "false stories" and had been detained since then for interrogation.

The Arab Socialist Union, one of the seven member-parties of the ruling National Progressive Front has issued its own publication, Al-Mithaq (The Charter).