CPJ calls on new Syrian leaders to protect journalist safety, hold Assad’s media persecutors to account 

As Syria transitions to a new government following the December 8 toppling of Bashar al-Assad, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities to take decisive action to ensure the safety of all journalists and hold accountable those responsible for the killing, imprisonment, and silencing of members of the media during the country’s 13-year civil war.

“Scenes of journalists rushing to cover Syria’s post-Assad regime raise hope for the start of a new chapter for the country’s media workers,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “While we wait for the missing to return and the imprisoned to be released, we call on the new authorities to hold the perpetrators to account for the crimes of killing, abducting, or jailing reporters.”

CPJ is also urging Syria’s new leaders to allow journalists and media workers safe access to information and locations to cover events, without risking being detained or questioned for their work.

Syria has long been one of the world’s deadliest and riskiest areas for journalists, with CPJ documenting 141 journalists killed there between 2011 and 2024. This figure includes 23 murders and at least six deaths in government custody.

At least five journalists were imprisoned in Syria at the time of CPJ’s 2023 prison census. One of them, Tal al-Mallohi, a Syrian blogger detained since 2009, was released after the ousting of Assad and was reportedly with her family in Homs, according to media reports and the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression.

The fate of other prisoners, including U.S. journalist Austin Tice – abducted in Syria in mid-August 2012 – remains unknown. The U.S. special envoy for hostages, Roger Carstens, has traveled to Beirut to coordinate efforts to find Tice, senior U.S. officials told The Washington Post.

Syria has one of the world’s worst track records in punishing murderers of journalists, featuring prominently on CPJ’s Global Impunity Index for the last 11 years, including as the top offender in 2023. Journalists working there faced harsh conditions even before the start of the civil war, including censorship and retaliation for challenging the authorities.