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Syria-Walls-Of-Silence.Pdf WALLS OF SILENCE Media and Censorship in Syria June 1998 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 2 KEY RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................ 3 BACKGROUND ............................................................................... 3.1 Ruling Parties and the Opposition ......................................... 3.2 Foreign Relations and the Media ........................................... 3.3 Reform and Freedom of Information ...................................... 4 SYRIA’S INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS ................................... 4.1 The Importance of Freedom of Expression ........................... 4.2 Media Freedom: A Positive Obligation .................................. 4.3 Restrictions on Freedom of Expression ................................. 5 CONSTITUTIONAL AND OTHER BASIC GUARANTEES OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ......................................................... 5.1 The Constitution .................................................................... 5.2 The Baath Party Constitution ................................................. 5.3 Safeguards in the Penal Code ............................................... 5.4 The Questionable Status of the State of Emergency Law ..................................................................... 6 MEDIA STRUCTURE ...................................................................... 6.1 The Press .............................................................................. 6.1.1 Daily Newspapers ....................................................... 6.1.2 Weekly Newspapers ................................................... 6.13 Foreign Newspapers ................................................... 6.2 Broadcast Media .................................................................... 6.2.1 Syrian Radio ............................................................... 6.2.2 Foreign Radio ............................................................. 6.2.3 Terrestrial Television .................................................. 6.2.4 Satellite Television ...................................................... 6.3 The Internet ........................................................................... 7 STRUCTURAL REGULATION OF THE MEDIA ............................. 7.1 State Monopolies ................................................................... 7.1.1 Publishing ................................................................... 7.1.2 Broadcasting ............................................................... 7.1.3 Distribution .................................................................. 7.2 Professional Bodies ............................................................... 7.2.1 The Journalists’ Syndicate .......................................... 7.2.2 Foreign Journalists ..................................................... 7.2.3 The Syrian Arab Writers’ Union .................................. 7.2.4 Training ....................................................................... 7.3 Regulations Governing Publishing ......................................... 7.3.1 Licensing and Registration .......................................... 7.3.2 Operating .................................................................... 7.3.3 Partisan Newspapers .................................................. 7.4 Advertising ............................................................................. 8 CRIMINALIZATION OF EXPRESSION ........................................... 8.1 Introduction ............................................................................ 8.2 Offences Under the State of Emergency Law ....................... 8.3 Opposing the Aims of the Revolution .................................... 8.4 Disseminating False Information ........................................... 8.5 Defamation and Disparagement ............................................ 8.6 Incitement of Sectarian, Racial or Religious Chauvinism ...... 8.7 “Aggression” Aimed at Changing the Constitution ................. 8.9 Syrian Controls on the Lebanese Media ................................ 9 ACCESS TO INFORMATION ......................................................... 9.1 A One-Way Flow ................................................................... 9.2 The Law on Secrecy and State Security ................................ 9.3 The Law on Meetings and Societies ...................................... 9.4 Impediments to Research ...................................................... 9.4.1 Market Research ........................................................ 9.4.2 Book Banning ............................................................. 10 EXTRA-LEGAL REPRESSION OF THE MEDIA ............................. 10.1 Detention Without Trial or Beyond the Duration of Sentences ........................................................... 10.2 Torture and Ill-Treatment in Custody ..................................... 10.3 Attacks, Abductions and Assassinations ............................... 10.4 Repression of Kurdish Self-Expression ................................. 10.5 Deprivation of Civil Rights ..................................................... APPENDICES ............................................................................................. 1 Relevant Freedom of Expression Provisions of International Instruments ...................................................................................... ? 2 Barcelona Declaration Adopted on November 1995 at the Euro-Mediterranean Conference: Extracts ....................................... 3 UNESCO: Declaration on Promoting Independent and Pluralistic Arab Media — 11 January 1996: Extracts ....................... 4 The Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information ............................................. 5 Measures Necessary to Protect and Promote Broadcasting Freedom ........................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION Return to Contents Syria is a country about which few people, inside or outside, ever learn very much. Its draconian State of Emergency Law, in force for the past 36 years, sees to that. Multiple intelligence services pry into every corner of people’s lives under orders from the regime. The overall political, economic and social picture is either not investigated for fear of what it might show, or is kept secret for the same reason. As a police state in which the media are monopolized by an authoritarian regime and dissent has been crushed to the point where it is virtually inaudible, Syria is an anachronism in a world commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the UDHR. It is a relatively large country in Middle East terms, with a heterogeneous population of over 15 million and a potentially strong economy, based on diverse resources, which has enjoyed reasonable growth in the past few years. But, as this report shows, the stability it displays to the outside world is built on visible and invisible repression. On one level, the ever-present threat of imprisonment, torture and deprivation of civil rights deters open debate; most people know of someone who has been punished for speaking their mind. On another, the regime buys the silence of the majority with small concessions that enable the compliant to live what seems on the surface to be a normal life. The Syrian human rights organization, the Committees for the Defence of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights (CDF), describes the lack of normality as follows: "It is true that censorship cannot be total. But, by its irrationality and narrow- mindedness it creates a phobia which paralyses all chance of gaining wide knowledge and all normal intellectual life." Amnesty International, which sent a team to Syria in 1997 without issuing a report on the visit, witnessed ‘normality’ in Syria after more than a quarter of a century under President Hafez al-Asad. Whereas, in a prolonged series of political trials from 1992 to 1995, hundreds of detainees, some of whom had already been held for many years, were sentenced to prison terms of 12-15 years, the trials observed by Amnesty International in 1997 were of people who had been in pre-trial detention for 12-18 months. Some had been charged because they had visited, or were suspected of having visited, Iraq. Others stood accused of sympathizing with Kurdish secessionists, which, under Article 292 of the Penal Code, would constitute the crime of attempting to "cut off part of Syrian land". The sentences handed down to those convicted were mostly under three years. These were lenient by previous standards. In a country where, as recently as 1994, prison terms of 15 years have been imposed on people for making speeches or writing articles, normality becomes hard to define. Censorship in Syria takes many forms. Those affecting the media are analysed in this report, which compares and contrasts structural and legislative controls over media activity with safeguards for freedom of expression contained in Syria’s own laws and its obligations under international agreements which it has signed. One fundamental problem lies in the regime’s selective application of laws currently in force. For example, the 1962 State of Emergency Law is cited as empowering the authorities, under threat of war with Israel, to impose blanket censorship on communication of all kinds and to try cases involving breaches of censorship rules before
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