An opening in Syria for journalists

Our first interaction with the rebels who overthrew Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, some of them previously affiliated with Syrian jihadist groups, was smooth. “Welcome to Syria,” declared one. “We are free. You are free,” declared another outside a run-down army base near the Lebanese border.

Monitor staff writer Scott Peterson and I had been monitoring the rebels’ advance for weeks. After they took over the strategic city of Aleppo on Nov. 30, it looked possible that the Assad regime could fall. Less than a week later, when they took Hama, a central city that armed opposition groups never controlled in the almost 14-year conflict, the government’s fall appeared imminent. On Dec. 8, when the rebels breached the doors of the infamous Sednaya Military Prison on the outskirts of Damascus, we knew the Assad government was finished.

I saw videos of the raw emotion and stunned faces of political prisoners moments after their release via WhatsApp. The images were in my palm even before they had aired on Al Jazeera, which I watch once my kids are in bed because the Arabic channel allows more graphic footage than do most Western media.

On Sunday morning, I called my editor, Peter Ford, and made the case: “Syria, now, please.”

Access to Syria for Western journalists was always complicated. It typically involved a minder. I never went through that song and dance. Instead, in 2008 I went to Syria for the first time on a tourist visa, when Damascus was considered the Arab capital of culture. It was a golden period. The promise of greater economic and political freedom was in the air, even as security services still prowled the streets and people rarely spoke their political minds.

During the rule of Hafez al-Assad and that of his equally brutal son Bashar, freedom of expression was limited, conversations systematically tapped, and minor movements monitored. Intercity and international journeys carried an element of risk. Security services assiduously checked identity papers and questioned anyone who boarded buses. War made matters worse, with soldiers and pro-Assad militias abusing absolute power to deprive Syrians of their goods, freedom, and dignity – or to forcibly enlist them in the army. Pop-up checkpoints became a problem.

That heavy-handed style was mimicked by some rebel groups that took up arms to protect demonstrators and later waged war with support from the Gulf states, Turkey, Libya, and the West. It didn’t take too long for groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and later the Islamic State to enter the scene. Some saw foreign journalists as legitimate targets for kidnapping and killing. Tragedies like the brutal death of James Foley changed the risk assessment of international newsrooms and shifted much of Western reporting in Syria to “remote” mode, or limited it to one side of the conflict.

Now journalists are entering Syria by the hundreds. Some are there for the nth time, committed to the story they have struggled to cover for years. Others for the first. Many are Syrians coming home after a period of exile. For them, the stakes are very high. I hope that freedom of the press will be firmly established and maintained in the months ahead. I trust that the vast constellation of Syrian journalists who have shone with their courage over the years will insist on nothing less and shine brighter still.

This column first appeared in the Feb. 10 issue of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly. Subscribe today to receive future issues of the Monitor Weekly magazine delivered to your home.