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BEIRUT: After decades of living under state media control, Syrian journalists at home and abroad have established the Syrian Journalists’ Association (SJA).

With this new organization, which released its mission statement February 20, the journalists hope to counter the efforts of the government-run Syrian Journalists’ Union, which they say rather than protecting and supporting members of the press has instead pressured them to tow the government line, ever since the country’s ruling Baath party took power in 1963.

“Sadly, the Syrian Journalists’ Union didn’t act as an independent organization to support journalists. It was for propaganda,” says Ghassan Ibrahim, a founder of the SJA and head of the Arab Global Network, a news service based in London.

“We’re independent journalists who believe in freedom, and we decided to start this organization so that journalists can get access to the country and send a message.”

As for the organization’s first order of business, he says, “We’ll start by looking at where the SJU failed.”

Syrian journalists who founded the new association claim that the government-run union regularly monitors their activities.

“As soon as I registered with the union, police came to my house. I asked myself, ‘Why am I being investigated?’” recalls Ghalia Kabbani, another founding member of the association, who worked as a journalist in Syria between 1990 and 1994, during which time she was repeatedly questioned by the authorities simply for being a registered journalist.

She says she was ordered to write detailed reports on her friends and family, and was also asked to spy on any foreign journalists she knew who entered the country.

Similarly, Kinda Kanbar, publisher for four years of an independent magazine not recognized by the union, says, “I was afraid to knock on their door because the union was known to be part of the secret police department, the mukhabarat.”

Of the new organization, Kabbani emphasizes, “This is for journalists who are with the revolution. We want to say we’re not part of that [government-run] union.”

Indeed, as the bloodshed in Syria continues unabated, and with no clear resolution to the political conflict in sight, activists say it is important to develop institutions that would enable a transition to civil society. Similar associations have been set up by members of other professions, including one in December for artists and another in January for writers.

“When the regime falls, we’ll need established institutions,” Kabbani points out. And Ibrahim, of the Arab Global Network, predicts that “when the regime falls, the official union will have the same fate.”

Ibrahim also notes that no Syrian journalist will be required or pressured to join the association. Instead, he says that the group will defend media freedom and protect the rights of journalists.

It will be open to all Syrian and Syrian-born Palestinian journalists working in print, broadcast and online media whether they live inside Syria or abroad. Those interested in joining must provide a letter from their media outlet or obtain the approval of three founding members of the SJA.

As their manifesto reads, “The Syrian Journalists Association is a democratic and independent association. It is committed to the Syrian revolution’s goals and its calls for the freedom and dignity of the Syrian people, and moving towards building a democratic state that guarantees justice and equality to all Syrian citizens.”

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Syrian journalists look to promote media freedom with new association