To describe 2011 as a turbulent year for Syria would be an understatement. As other regimes in the Arab world have fallen, President Bashar al-Assad has ruthlessly clung to power. At every step, media attempts to shed light on developments have been thwarted. The government has cracked down on local journalists and denied access to most foreign ones.

According to Ghias Aljundi, an exiled Syrian activist, “after the beginning of the Syrian revolution on 15 March 2011, press freedom suffered additional restrictions and dozens of journalists and bloggers have been arrested and tortured for … writing pieces about what it is happening inside Syria.” He added: “There are documented reports that the arrested journalists have been tortured and forced to write articles in which they had to deny that there were protests in the country. Opposition websites have been blocked or hacked by the state-backed Syrian Electronic Army.”

On the one hand, the Syrian government controls the media and uses it to boost its own legitimacy, but the current level of protests and uprisings, and the avenues for information-sharing opened up by social media developments, have made it impossible to fully stifle the flow of news.

According to the United Nations, more than 5,000 people have been killed since the uprisings started in March in Syria. In a number of moves to bolster his legitimacy, President Assad has made various changes to laws regarding the press. In April 2011, Assad removed an emergency law which allowed the state to control the media. In June, a few select foreign journalists were allowed to enter Syria, after having applied for, and successfully obtained, a visa. IPI reported on the numerous challenges faced by these journalists. President Assad passed a law earlier in August easing the tight regulations for journalists, making it more difficult to arrest or ban them. In October, Assad claimed that fundamental freedoms of the media must be recognised and article 11 of the decree states: “Any attack on a journalist will be treated as an attack on Syrian government official.”

Whilst these reforms are designed to create the impression that journalists are free to report in Syria, the reality is grimly different. According to a report by the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, entitled Crackdown on Media Workers in Syria, 114 human rights violations took place against 99 journalists, bloggers and intellectuals between February and October 2011. The report details how journalists are intimidated and harassed because of their reports on the uprisings in Syria. It is unclear how many journalists and bloggers have been detained, as many appear to have simply disappeared.

“Local journalists have been banned from moving within Syria and many of them have been interrogated or arrested for trying to visit other Syrian cities,” activist Aljundi said. “The majority of Syrian journalists, who reported on the recent events in Syria, were exposed to a defamation campaign by the state-owned media or through pro-regime websites. As Syria is completely closed down to any reliable media or journalists, many of the Syrian journalists had to flee the country for their safety.”

Even the few foreign journalists allowed to enter Syria have been restricted in terms of what they have been allowed to cover and where they have been allowed to go. For example, foreign journalists have been unable to cover the anti-government protests in Homs. Often, they were just given the state-sanctioned versions of stories.

With the lack of representative reporting in Syria and foreign media restricted, there has been a huge increase in blogs and so-called ‘citizen reporting’ but even amateur journalists are in danger. Security forces are targeting those with mobile phones at anti-government protests. They are also seeking to gather information about pro-democracy bloggers and protestors and flooding Facebook and Twitter pages of the opposition with pro-Assad messages.

Razan Ghazzawi, a blogger and press freedom campaigner was arrested on 5 December on her way to a conference about press freedom in Jordan. Ghazzawi, who was born in the United States and works for the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, had been blogging in her real name about the abuse of human rights and detention of journalists and bloggers in Syria. She is now facing up to 15 years in prison for “establishing an organisation that aims to change the social and economic entity of the state” and “weakening the national sentiment, and trying to ignite sectarian strife”.  Ghazzawi was released on bail on 18 December but she will still have to face trial.

Abdel Walid Kharsa was arrested because he was covering protests in Hama in August. He has not been charged and his location and condition are also unknown.  Other journalists who have been arrested include Amer Matar, who wrote for Al-Hayat, and cameraman Tariq Saeed Balsha, both of whom have not been charged. Mohammed-Jamal al-Tahan, the editor of state newspaper Tishreen, was arrested after supporting the uprisings and his whereabouts are also unknown.

There have been a number of disturbing stories, including that of cameraman Ferzat Jarban, who was brutally killed in Homs and found with his eyes gouged out. He was reportedly last seen being arrested by security forces. Even the Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat, who won ‘journalist of the year’ at the Le Monde Prize for Press Freedom this year, was kidnapped and viciously attacked. Farzat, who is well known for his political caricatures, had his hands smashed.

The foreign media has also been targeted. Sean McAllister was seized in a Damascus cafe along with his contact. McAllister was working undercover for a report for Channel 4 News when he was taken away and interrogated. His contact, Jihad Jamal, a journalist and activist is still missing.

On 20 December, Lebanese journalist and Syrian correspondent for As Safir newspaper Mohammed Dahnoun disappeared in Syria. It is unclear whether or not he was reporting on the protests at the time, as the government has restricted foreign media. The newspaper that Dahnoun works for was banned by the Syrian government in July after publishing a series of articles criticising the way the regime has handled the protests. He was reportedly last seen being taken away by security forces in Midan Square in Damascus.