The family of Hassan, from the Eastern Ghouta, did not know that one laptop was going to bring their whole life upside down. When Hassan’s laptop, and a few of his hard drives containing archival footage of demonstrations in the town of Douma, the whole family found themselves on the fugitive lists on regime crossings. Hassan had to live undercover in Damascus moving from one house to another. His siblings however were arrested by the regime on 11 November 2011. This pushed Hassan to escape into Douma, and thus starts his new life as a media activist.

Going back to Douma meant that the 24-years old man couldn’t continue his studies in mechanical engineering, and opted to focus on “filming demonstrations and assisting in media work such as collecting footage and delivering them to reporters.” He started producing television reports in 2012, after attending several trainings for reporters in the Eastern Ghouta, and he became a regular reporter for Shaam News Network, among other networks. Today, his work in the media is not only as a contribution to the uprising, but as a profession that he has come to love, “especially after proving myself in many fields including writing articles and producing reports.”

The imprisonment of his two siblings, and the death of his reporter colleague, Muhammad al-Said, created a great impetus for him to continue his work. “On the one hand, I became under great pressure to secure the livelihood of my family in dire circumstances,” he says in an interview with SyriaUntold.

On the other hand, he became more dedicated to perfecting his professional output to make up for the loss of his friend and colleague. “Before the siege we had access to many equipment, but we didn’t have the professional expertise. Now that we do, after years of training, we are finding it difficult to access necessary equipment under siege, and we suffer greatly from the lack of electricity in our work,” he reflects.

These difficulties, however, have not distracted him from the mission he set for himself: “To deliver the voice of 728 thousand civilians in Ghouta, under the daily threat of death.”