Every Sunday, Hamoud Al Mahmoud heads off to the state-run Syrian TV station, where as part of a part-time job, he edits a morning talk show, then drives down to Marjeh Square in the heart of the Old City to the offices of the economic bi-monthly Aliqtisadi.
Over there in the private sector he is managing editor of one of Syria's top private media outlets, with more than 10,000 copies per month distributed within the upper echelons of the business community in Damascus. In this "private sector" world, Al Mahmoud is empowered with a wider margin for freedom of expression, more professional staff, newer equipment — and a better salary than the public sector. In 2009, for example, he mapped out Syria's "richest 100" in an edition that sold like hotcakes on the streets of Damascus — something that would have been close to impossible had such a report been earmarked for the public sector media.
Mahmoud's double life is common for many Syrian journalists, who suddenly found windows of new opportunity opening up when President Bashar Al Assad authorised private media to operate in September 2001.
Power of opinion
Seated in a small office overlooking Martyr's Square in Damascus, where Arab nationalists were executed over 90 years ago, Al Mahmoud explained to Weekend Review: "Private media in Syria — and especially business journalism — is going through a golden era, thanks to the economic reforms under way." The government is now reaching out to the private sector for help, "relying on them for no less than 65 per cent of the GDP". The government can no longer turn a deaf ear to what business journalists are saying and rather than have them on the offensive, it has commenced a periodic dialogue with heavyweights in the field, hearing out their worries rather than just dictating its wishes. Recently, noted the managing editor of Aliqtisadi, "We had a meeting with the new Economy Minister, Lamia Al Assi, who asked to help her conduct a two-way dialogue between private media and government."
There are no less than 165 magazines and periodicals published in Syria — all released after Al Assad's rise to power ten years ago. The variety list is long, starting with luxury- and fashion-oriented magazines such as Happynings, to Arabic political periodicals such as Abyad & Aswad (Black & White), Class and Layalina, (two glossy entertainment monthlies) and ideology-driven publications of the Syrian Communist Party, such as Al Nour.
Some publications such as the cartoonist Ali Farzat's Ad Domari (Syria's first independent newspaper in four decades) were closed down for "violating publication laws" while others, such as the political daily Al Watan, have managed to enter every household since they were established three years ago, selling for 5 Syrian pounds (11 cents), identical to the selling price of state-run dailies such as Al Baath and Al Thawra.
Forward, Syria's English monthly magazine, has charted new horizons for Syrian media by interviewing non-Syrian celebrities such as Hollywood Oscar-nominee Anne Archer, Brazilian bestselling author Paulo Coelho and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, in addition to being the first to score an interview with a former American president, Jimmy Carter. It also managed to attract top-notch international journalists such as David Ignatius of The Washington Post and CNN's Riz Khan to write in the Syrian media.
Contrary to what many in the West may believe, there is no pre-censorship in the Syrian media, says Mustafa Al Sayyed, who writes for the daily Al Watan and runs an online news portal called Absyria. "You write what you want, how you want, keeping laws and regulations on the back of your mind; once you go wrong, you will be called to court to testify before a judge," he says. Nobody sends their work to censorship before publication, he explained, noting that this is now a thing of the past.
Online journalism, a totally new business, is yet to be regulated in Syria, booming nevertheless because it costs less than publishing a print version and less censorship applies to it.
Syria's first online news portal Syria-News began in 2004, started by Nidal Maalouf, an engineer-turned journalist, with a readership of 1 million. As of June 2009, there were 3.5 million internet users in Syria, a number likely to increase because of the availability of ADSL connections all over the country, giving a natural push to online journalism. A law regulating online publication is being hammered out at the Ministry of Information and a code of ethics for online journalists is being worked out by the Syndicate of Syrian Journalists.
Holes to be plugged
Despite the promise, there are shortcomings, as in any other business, for private media in Syria. One is wages, said Tamer Karkout, a senior writer for the Communist Party periodical Al Nour. Journalists for state-run media make no more than $300 a month, he says, while the figure does not exceed $500 for the private sector, forcing journalists to freelance in a few other publications to make a good living. Another problem is dependence on state-run media personnel to fuel the private media scene. In many cases, these officials, trained for decades in a centralised manner, find themselves deprived of creativity, initiative and interaction with how the international media scene is operating — with social networking for media outlets, for example, through Facebook and Twitter.
Al Mahmoud wrapped up boasting: "I can safely say that we were the first to overcome this crisis at Aliqtisadi. We started out five years ago with 90 per cent state-run journalists, whereas today that number is down to less than 5 per cent. What we did was hunt for talent at the Faculty of Journalism, brought students for summer internship and then hired them from the minute they graduated. We gave them a fresh and speckless experience in the private sector media scene, with no distortions whatsoever to their minds or initiative taken from the public sector."
Sami Moubayed is editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria.
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