Most Notable violations Against Media Activists in March 2015
A- Executive Summary:
Violations against media activist for this month have varied as follows:
a) Murder: SNHR documented the death of 9 media activist as follows:
– Government Forces (Army, Security, Foreign and Local Militias): Killed 7 media activist, 2 of them suffered the death under torture in detention centers
– Armed Opposition Factions: Killed 1 media activist
– ISIS: Killed 1 media activist
b) Abduction and Detention: SNHR documented 4 cases of abduction or detention, as follows:
– Government Forces: 1 media activist detained
– PYD (Kurdish Democratic Union Party) Forces: Arrested 2 media activist and released them later, while they’ve also released a media activist that was arrested for a few months
– Armed Opposition Factions: A media activist was detained and released later
c) Injuries: SNHR documented a single injury by government forces
d) Assault Against Property:
– Government Forces: SNHR recorded a single assault against property case.
– Unknown Groups: SNHR recorded a single assault against property case.
B- Introduction of The Report:
At the beginning of the fifth year of the public protests, the burden of the continued armed conflict in Syria violently and severely with no signs of a drastic solution to stop this viscous war that civilians are its number one victims, has prompted chaos and dispersion which reflected on the freedom of the media activities, as it faces crisis and weakness, as it suffers from an ongoing deterioration that affected the role and the jobs of the people working in this profession.
One of the most important signs of deterioration and chaos that dominated the media attributes today, is the amount of contradictory in the information about the most significant events, violations, and crimes committed in the country, the lack of reliable sources, and the dimness of events or even blocking it, and the difficulty of access and verification in most areas of Syria, especially those that controlled by ISIS which imposes a state of terror and intimidation regarding professional and independent media activity, and despite the fact that those areas controlled by ISIS may exceed 40% of the Syrian lands, but those dark areas extend to the rest of the regions, straining under the control of government forces , and also the influence of other armed parties involved in the war, despite the variation in the amount of violations committed yet it by far favors first government forces and second ISIS.
And we can say that the dangerous security status and the continued crimes and violations against media activists, is one of the most important challenges and difficulties that the media work faces in Syria today, which prevent it from rising to keep up with the fast and complicated developments of the events on all levels, as it also led to the degradation of its professional performance to apply its vital role in monitoring events and publishing it.