For decades, the Syrian regime did everything in its power to control every form of citizen expression. Independent media did not exist in the country and journalists critical of the regime were prosecuted, which made freedom of expression a core demand of the uprising that started in March 2011. To narrate their own events beyond governmental censorship, Syrians have started creating their own media outlets.

In addition to the constant flow of contents shared by Syrians through online social media, the new Syrian media outlets include radio channels, such as Radio New Beginning, The Voice of Reason, One plus One and Radio SouriaLi (we wrote about it here); and several journals and newspapers aimed both at reaching out to Syrians abroad and providing an alternative to the official communications inside the country.

My Free Country, Grapes of my Country, We looked at Freedom, The Alternative, The Syrian Leftist Coalition, Our Syria, The Steamboat of the Kurds, Liberties, The Oxygen Magazine, The Free Ones of Syria, The Truth, Syria Wants Freedom, The Archives of Tomorrow, Controversial, Al-Dumari, and The Republic are just a few of the dozens of journals created by Syrians after March 2011, breaking away from decades of censorship. Most of them have Facebook sites.

One of the main journals is The Alternative, a product of a joint effort from several groups and organizations, from the Secular Democratic Coalition to different local committees.

According to Mohammad Aloush, founder of the journal My Free Country who was arrested twice by the regime, “there are many decentralized news outlets, but we still don´t have one independent news outlet that represents the Syrian people, manages to reach out to Syrians both inside the country and abroad, and offers a comprehensive view of issues such as the political situation and the living conditions of the refugees.” The main problems, according to Aloush and other sources interviewed, are the lack of funding and the difficulty to develop good work under the current circumstances.

In the words of one of the founders of the Syrian Leftist Coalition who prefers to remain anonymous, “the Coalition´s journal was born out of our need to engage in the revolution and pursue the goals of making Syria a progressive industrial and agricultural economy under a secular democratic regime, far from the corruption and repression of the Assad times.” 

Some of the reporting and analysis produced by these media outlets have been criticized by some, who say they lack enough critique of the mistakes committed within the revolution, falling on a similar logic to the one used by the regime for decades. The publication We Looked at Freedom was born to try to raise awareness about the need for high standards regarding the way news are communicated and the importance of following human rights-based principles. The renowned human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouneh has written extensively on these issues.

While Syrians struggle against the regime and work on rebuilding their country, they are also in the process of building their own media, learning how to create their own free, independent journalism after decades of censorship.