A SYRIAN JOURNALIST THOUGHTS

BY FAWAZ ALMOTLAK

The road to Damascus, Syria, is different today than it was in the past. Damascus, which was under dictatorship for approximately 54 years—a duration longer than my own lifetime since I was born in the mid-1970s—has only known one president and then his son as president during my entire life. Since graduating from university in the mid-1990s, I have struggled in my work as a journalist, forced to work for a government newspaper to represent and enforce its policies and restrictions on the Syrian people. This created continuous psychological pressure on me for many years as I searched for salvation, which finally came with the start of the revolution in 2011.

However, the Syrian revolution, sabotaged and manipulated by the regime itself, veered off its intended path, resulting in massive destruction. It failed to achieve its goals at the time, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions displaced from their cities and homes. Among those displaced were my family and I, and we eventually found safe refuge in Britain, which provided us with everything we needed: love and warmth.

Media has a noble and lofty humanitarian mission toward its societies, but in countries ruled by dictatorships, journalism becomes an arduous and extremely dangerous profession. As a journalist in Syria during the Assad rule, I was forced to go into hiding several times to protect myself from threats and dangers from the newspaper's administration. As a result and for a long time, I refused to write or participate in journalism.

I endured harsh living and working conditions in the darkest of circumstances, which led to immense psychological pressure. The widespread, systematic destruction and killing—including the deaths of children and women everywhere—created a significant emotional burden. As a journalist, I couldn’t even express my opinion, not even on social media. If I did, I faced the threat of arrest, torture, and sometimes even death. We witnessed many cases of colleagues losing their lives or disappearing forever, eliminated by the Assad regime and its allies, who were present all over Syria.

I vividly remember the day I was picking up my daughter from school in my car when an explosive device, planted on the road, detonated about 20 meters

 away from us. We survived, but the impact of that incident remained deeply ingrained in my daughter’s psyche for months.

The revolution finally succeeded about a month ago, and the Assad regime—both father and son—was overthrown. The Syrian people have been liberated from their bondage, breathing the air of freedom to create their future from their own will. The most pressing question now remains: will the political and military revolution succeed in fostering a true intellectual revolution that the Syrian society needs for its revival and progress?