Syria’s security forces raid journalist’s home for criticizing Assad
Syria’s security forces raid journalist’s home for criticizing Assad/node/2020331/media
Syria’s security forces raid journalist’s home for criticizing Assad
Syrian regime forces enter the village of Utaya on March 5, 2018, as they seized more ground in a fierce offensive to retake the battered rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta. (AFP)
Syria’s security forces raid journalist’s home for criticizing Assad
Waqaf is known for his frequent criticism of government corruption and the living conditions in government-controlled areas
Updated 08 February 2022
Arab News
LONDON: Syrian journalist Kinan Waqaf posted a video on Facebook on Sunday revealing that government security forces had raided his home while he was away, pleading with his followers to take care of his children if he was arrested.
The Tartous-based journalist had criticized Syria’s President Bashar Assad a few days earlier for hosting Syrian actress Sulaf Fawakherji and her husband Wael Ramadan in the presidential palace.
While Fawakherji is known to be an Assad supporter, Waqaf’s criticism was directed at the president for meeting and taking pictures with actors while the situation in areas under his control is dire.
In the video, taken outside Waqaf’s house, the journalist explains that armed security forces had raided his house without permission or a warrant.
He added that the security forces scared his children, saying that publishing the video was his “will” and pleading for his children to be taken care of if he was arrested.
Waqaf is known for his frequent criticism of government corruption and the living conditions in government-controlled areas.
This is not the first time Waqaf has been targeted by Syria’s security and intelligence forces.
In March 2021, Waqaf was arrested while working for Al-Wahda newspaper in Tartous after publishing reports exposing corruption by government officials. A few months earlier, in September 2020, Waqaf was arrested for publishing an investigative report on his Facebook page.
According to the 2021 World Press Freedom Index, Syria was ranked 173 out of 180 countries for freedom of the press.
The annual report published by the Syrian Network for Human Rights documented the most prominent violations committed against journalists in Syria. The report indicated that 709 journalists and media workers had been killed in Syria since March 2011; 52 were tortured to death and 80 percent of deaths were committed by the Syrian regime or its allies.
BBC journalists detained at gunpoint in southern Syria
BBC sent complaint to Israeli military about the incident
Updated 05 June 2025
Arab News
LONDON: Israeli Defense Forces detained, blindfolded, tied up and strip-searched at gunpoint seven members of a BBC Arabic crew as they approached the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a BBC journalist said on Thursday.
Feras Kilani, a British special correspondent for BBC Arabic, said he was among the team detained for seven hours at a checkpoint near the barrier of Quneitra city, located within the buffer zone between Syria and Israel.
“A minute after we started filming in the area, a white car approached from the other side of the checkpoint. Four Israeli soldiers got out of the car and surrounded us. They pointed their rifles at our heads and ordered us to place the camera on the side of the road,” wrote Kilani in a BBC article.
The crew’s phones and laptops were inspected, with some files deleted, and their vehicle was thoroughly searched as they were led into a room, tied up and blindfolded.
Kilani’s team included two Iraqi BBC staff members and four Syrians, among them three freelancers and a cameraman.
“I pleaded to the officer to release them, and he promised to do so after the interrogations. They were taken one by one to the same room for strip search and questioning.”
Kilani said the team was also threatened before their release in the evening: “The officer threatened us with worse consequences if we approached the frontier from the Syrian side again and said that they know everything about us and would track us down if any hidden or un-deleted photo was ever published.”
In a statement, the BBC said it had filed a complaint with the Israeli military over the incident but had yet to receive a response.
“The BBC strongly objects to the treatment of our staff and freelancers in this way. Despite making clear to the soldiers on multiple occasions they were working for the BBC, the behavior they were subjected to is wholly unacceptable,” the broadcaster said.
YouTube educator says she is ready to risk career for Gaza’s children
Ms Rachel says personal encounters with Palestinian families compel her to act
Updated 05 June 2025
Arab News
LONDON: American children’s educator and YouTuber Rachel Griffin Accurso, known globally as Ms Rachel, has said she is willing to jeopardize her career to advocate for Palestinian children suffering under Israeli bombardment in Gaza.
Ms Rachel said she had been targeted by online campaigns and faced calls for government investigation after voicing support for children affected by war in Gaza and elsewhere.
Despite growing criticism from some pro-Israel groups and conservative media, she said she remained defiant in a recent interview with WBUR, a Boston-based public radio station.
She said: “I would risk everything — and I will risk my career over and over to stand up for children. It’s all about the kids for me. I wouldn’t be Ms Rachel if I didn’t deeply care about all kids.”
Her comments came as humanitarian agencies continue to sound the alarm over conditions in Gaza, where more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed, and the UN has warned that the enclave faces imminent famine.
The YouTube star said a recent meeting with Palestinian mothers, whose children remain trapped in Gaza, had had a profound effect on her. She said: “When you sit with a mother who’s FaceTiming her boys in Gaza who don’t have food, and you see that anguish, you ask yourself: What more can I do?”
Ms Rachel recently published about her encounter with Rahaf, 3, a double amputee from Gaza who was evacuated for medical treatment in the US by the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
Rahaf’s story, including her wish to return to school and stand while praying, has been shared by Ms Rachel on her social media platforms, alongside the educator’s advocacy for children in Gaza.
Ms Rachel has faced accusations of bias, including a call by a pro-Israel organization urging the US attorney general to investigate her messaging. She acknowledged the pressure, but insisted her mission remains unchanged.
She said: “It’s painful, but I know who I am, and I know how deeply and equally I care for all children.”
A former teacher in New York, Ms Rachel said her work had always been rooted in the principle that all children, regardless of nationality or background, deserved dignity, safety, and access to basic needs.
She added: “That’s the basis of everything for me — children are equal.”
BBC defends Gaza coverage after White House criticism over aid site reporting
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the BBC of taking “the word of Hamas with total truth,” claimed the corporation had retracted a story about aid distribution center incident in Rafah on Sunday
BBC rejected accusations as “completely wrong,” saying figures were attributed and updated throughout the day based on information from a range of sources
Updated 04 June 2025
Arab News
LONDON: The BBC has strongly defended its reporting of a deadly incident near a US-backed aid distribution site in Gaza, rejecting criticism from the White House as “incorrect” and denying claims that it had taken down a story.
The row erupted after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, during a press briefing on Tuesday, accused the BBC of relying on information from Hamas in its initial reporting of a shooting near an aid distribution center in Rafah on Sunday.
Leavitt also claimed the BBC had retracted a story — a claim the broadcaster called “completely wrong.”
“The claim the BBC took down a story after reviewing footage is completely wrong. We did not remove any story and we stand by our journalism,” the BBC said in a statement.
Leavitt’s remarks came in response to questions about reports that Israeli forces had opened fire near the aid site. Holding printed screenshots from the BBC website, she accused the broadcaster of changing casualty figures in multiple headlines and said it had “corrected and taken down” its report.
“The administration is aware of those reports and we are currently looking into the veracity of them because, unfortunately, unlike some in the media, we don’t take the word of Hamas with total truth,” she said.
Leavitt’s remarks came in response to questions about reports that Israeli forces had opened fire near the aid site. AP/File
Leavitt listed a series of changing headlines: “We like to look into it when they speak, unlike the BBC, who had multiple headlines, they wrote, ‘Israeli tank kills 26’, ‘Israeli tank kills 21’, ‘Israeli gunfire kills 31’, ‘Red Cross says, 21 people were killed in an aid incident.’”
“And then, oh, wait, they had to correct and take down their entire story, saying: ‘We reviewed the footage and couldn’t find any evidence of anything,’” she said.
The BBC issued a swift rebuttal, emphasizing that all casualty figures were clearly attributed and updated throughout the day based on information from a range of sources — standard practice in any fast-moving situation, especially during conflict.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, at least 31 people were killed in the gunfire. The International Committee of the Red Cross later confirmed that 21 people had died. Initial reports from local medics cited 15 dead.
The numbers were “always clearly attributed, from the first figure of 15 from medics, through the 31 killed from the Hamas-run health ministry to the final Red Cross statement of ‘at least 21’ at their field hospital,” the BBC statement said.
“Our news stories and headlines about Sunday’s aid distribution center incident were updated throughout the day with the latest fatality figures as they came in from various sources … This is totally normal practice on any fast-moving news story.
“Completely separately, a BBC Verify online report on Monday reported a viral video posted on social media was not linked to the aid distribution center it claimed to show.
“This video did not run on BBC news channels and had not informed our reporting. Conflating these two stories is simply misleading,” it added.
Witnesses, NGOs and local health officials said that civilians had been shot at while waiting for food at the Rafah aid point. The Israeli military denied these claims and said its forces had not fired at civilians. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed private group overseeing aid distribution, dismissed the reports as “outright fabrications.”
On Wednesday, GHF announced a temporary suspension of its operations in Gaza, citing security concerns. The Israeli army warned that roads leading to aid centers were now considered “combat zones.”
The closure follows a string of deadly incidents that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned as “unacceptable” and potentially “war crimes.”
The information war surrounding the conflict — now in its 21st month — has intensified, with both Israel and Hamas battling to control the narrative.
Independent reporting from Gaza remains limited. Israel continues to bar international media, including the BBC, from entering the territory, forcing news organizations to rely on local journalists, social media and unofficial channels.
Many local reporters are working under extreme physical and psychological pressure and are themselves frequent targets of Israeli airstrikes.
The BBC reiterated its call for unimpeded media access and urged the White House to support that demand.
“It’s important that accurate journalism is respected,” said Jonathan Munro, deputy director of BBC News. “And that governments call for free access to Gaza.”
Houthis abduct 4 journalists, jail another for criticizing leader, says watchdog
Committee to Protect Journalists and local authorities condemn the action, saying it “exemplifies the Houthis’ escalating assault on press freedom”
Updated 03 June 2025
Arab News
LONDON: At least four journalists have been abducted and another jailed for criticizing the Houthis’ leader, media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Tuesday.
Local reports claim freelance photographer Abduljabbar Zayad, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reporter Hassan Ziyad, Soorah Media Production Center director Abdulaziz Al-Noum and deputy head of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate Walid Ali Ghalib were abducted between May 21-23.
On May 24, the Specialized Criminal Court in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa sentenced Yemeni journalist Mohamed Al-Miyahi t0 18 months in prison for criticizing Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi online.
Al-Miyahi was also ordered to sign a pledge not to resume his journalistic work and to pay a guarantee of SR5 million ($20,500), which he would forfeit if he continued to publish material critical of the state.
Regional director of the CPJ, Sara Qudah, condemned the actions and said: “The kidnapping of at least four Yemeni journalists and media workers and the sentence issued against Mohamed Al-Miyahi exemplify the Houthis’ escalating assault on press freedom.
“We call on Houthi authorities to immediately release all detained journalists and stop weaponizing the law and courts to legitimize their repression of independent voices.”
The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate also condemned the kidnapping, calling it an “arbitrary campaign targeting journalists and freedom of opinion and expression.”
A statement released by the organization said: “The syndicate considers these abductions a continuation of the approach of repression and targeting of journalists and opinion holders, and a hostile behavior towards freedom of opinion and expression, holding the Houthi group fully responsible for the lives and safety of the detained colleagues.”
Al-Miyahi has criticized the Iran-backed Houthis in a series of articles, broadcasts and social media posts. In his last article, prior to his abduction in September 2024 and enforced disappearance for more than a month, he accused the group of suppressing freedom of expression and “not respect(ing) people and treat(ing) them like mindless and unconscious herds.”
In January he appeared in court accused of “publishing articles against the state.” The YJS called the trial a “sham (…) where the verdict was read aloud by the judge from a mobile phone inside the courtroom, violating the most basic standards of fair trial procedures.”
The CPJ accused the Houthis, who control Sanaa and govern more than 70 percent of Yemen’s population, of running a “parallel justice system (…) widely seen as lacking impartiality” and argued Al-Miyahi’s prosecution violated Article 13 of Yemen’s press law, which protects journalists from punishment for publishing their opinions.
Israeli army blocks Oscar media tour of villages in West Bank
Soldiers bar journalists from visiting Palestinian residents on trip organized by award winners
Updated 02 June 2025
AP
JERUSALEM: Israeli soldiers on Monday barred journalists from entering villages in the West Bank on a planned tour organized by the directors of the Oscar-winning movie “No Other Land.”
The directors of the film, which focuses on Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territory, said they had invited the journalists on the tour Monday to interview residents about increasing settler violence in the area.
In a video posted on X by the film’s co-director, Yuval Abraham, an Israeli soldier tells a group of international journalists there is “no passage” in the area because of a military order.
Basel Adra, a Palestinian co-director of the film who lives in the area, said the military then blocked the journalists from entering two Palestinian villages they had hoped to visit.
‘They don’t want the world to see what is happening here’
“They don’t want journalists to visit the villages to meet the residents,” said Adra, who had invited the journalists to his home. “It’s clear they don’t want the world to see what is happening here.”
Some of the surrounding area, including a collection of small Bedouin villages known as Masafer Yatta, was declared by the military to be a live-fire training zone in the 1980s.
Some 1,000 Palestinians have remained there despite being ordered out, and journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats have visited the villages in the past.
Palestinian residents in the area have reported increasing settler violence since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and kick-started the war in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks, and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time.
Adra said the journalists were eventually able to enter one of the villages in Masafer Yatta, but were barred from entering Tuwani, the village where he lives, and Khallet A-Daba, where he had hoped to take them.
Adra said settlers arrived in Khallet A-Daba on Monday and took over some of the caves where village residents live, destroying residents’ belongings and grazing hundreds of sheep on village lands.
The military demolished much of the village last month.
“No Other Land,” which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages.
The joint Palestinian-Israeli production was directed by Adra, Hamdan Ballal, another Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, along with Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.
The film has won a string of international awards.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution.
Israel has built well over 100 settlements, home to over 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship.
The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority administering population centers.
