"After the Syrian uprising morphed into an armed struggle, the Syrian government increasingly lost control over vast areas of territory. With the loss of State control, its imposed rule on media faded, enabling media to flourish in those areas. In territories it still controlled, its grip became even tighter consequently forcing many reporters out. By the end of 2013, media workers began to flee their new acquired space, too, after the extremist group called ISIS - “the Islamic State” - showed its might and other military groups also deprived media from the freedom it desired. In addition to the Syrian government-emptied territories, this dire situation in the opposition areas led to the migration of Syrian media to other countries, mainly to neighboring Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Like other refugees, journalists had to start a new life there. They found themselves in different sets of circumstances than they had experienced at home, especially in terms of regulations and living and working conditions, and they faced threats coming both from inside and outside their host country. RSF tried to dig deeper in the situation of exiled Syrian journalists and shed more light on the humanitarian, living and working conditions of media workers, exiled in their new shelter-countries, and on the dark side of Syrian journalists’ lives when reporting on their fellow citizens’ living conditions. RSF interviewed a total of 24 journalists in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Their names are not mentioned. Most of them asked to remain anonymous, fearing retaliation against themselves or their family members still in Syria. The source of fear was the Assad regime, ISIS, other groups in Syria, the authorities of their host country as well as the media organization where they used to work or are still working." (Page 3)
Turkey, 5
Jordan, 10
Lebanon, 14
Human Rights and the Right to Inform, 17