The concept of expressing one’s opinion is considered one of the basic and important reasons to demand what is beneficial, and to defend any cause adopted by any individual or entity. From this concept, motivations arises to achieve victory for any idea, and to speak up what is going on inside each individual. Opinion expression includes all levels of society, starting from the individual through the family until we reach the highest levels.
Over time, many advocates of freedom and reform have suffered from oppression and persecution, even death by assassination. Hence, it was necessary to talk about freedom of expression and opinion in Syria as an example that is considered one of the clearest in which freedoms were suppressed, and mouths were gagged.
Since Hafez al-Assad implicitly assumed power in 1970 through a military coup, then publicly in 1971 after an electoral farce, a new phase has begun in Syria. This is the stage of suppression of freedoms, rejecting any opinion that opposes Assad’s regime, and the forced disappearance of anyone who speaks out against them, using the emergency law that was imposed in 1963 and allowed the arrest of journalists, media professionals, and opponents. In this stage, the regime worked to silence the mouths that speak, using the most horrific, intimidating and immoral methods, and by tightening the security grip on the audio and visual media, keeping only two regime-supporting channels, or three in best cases.
This era continued until Hafez’s heir, Bashar, assumed power by fraud through rapid amendments to the constitution. It was followed by blocking global social media channels after its launch, such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and other means of communication.
At the start of the Syrian revolution, as it advanced month after month, the Assad killing machine pursued media professionals and those who disagreed with the regime with their opinions, whether by bombing or arresting them. Cases of forced disappearances and assassinations began to occur, collectively and individually.
As Muhammad Al-Maghout said, “Freedom of expression, speech, and belief must be guaranteed for all groups of people, any Arab citizen in any Arab country can access any official, and says whatever he wants, but when it comes out it become another matter.”
From the above, we clearly see the importance of freedom of expression of opinion, and its major role in destabilizing every dictatorial authority, and its impact at the local and international level where it is considered a human right in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights issued by the United Nations in 1948. The Declaration stipulates in general that every person has the right to express his opinion, and stick to it without being harassed, in addition to the ability to adopts ideas, receives them, and transmits them to others without any consideration of boundaries.
Here we ask two questions:
the first: To what extent has the space for freedom of expression developed and expanded in light of the Syrian revolution?
the second: What the extent to which the public and private streets understand the concept of freedom of expression of opinion, and how to use it to serve the interests of the Syrian revolution, and Syria in the future?
To answer the first question, it is sufficient for us to look briefly at the clear increase in the percentage of media professionals, journalists, news channels, and websites that were launched after the Syrian revolution, and became concerned with this matter and expressed their opinions without restriction, sticking to what they convey, and formulating their news based on facts and realistic matters, and not considering the consequences as an obstacle preventing them from transferring their voice.
As for the second question, here we clearly see that the barrier of silence among the people has been broken, and media professionals in general started conveying and presenting their opinions, whether by writing on social media platforms and pages or television interviews, also, we see clearly the participation of many Syrian opposition media professionals in television programs and news channels with noticeable influence in the media arena.
Despite all the previous expansion of horizons, breaking the journalistic deadlock, and honesty of opinions, however, there is still some media restrictions inside Syria. The areas under the regime’s control still suffer from the same hardship and restrictions. As for the opposition-controlled areas, the controls that govern the media are still subject to every party in the places under its control, and they try whenever they have the opportunity to hide the side that is talking against them, whether by closing media centers, stopping some media professionals from working, or assassinating activists, such as the assassination of activist Abu Ghanoum.
All of this falls within security reasons to prevent the photographing of sensitive areas of the factions, whether intentionally or unintentionally. This is a somewhat convincing reason, and it requires some media controls, or for other reasons, such as the names given to the military factions present, such as (militias or mercenaries) on news channels. In my opinion, this harms the common good of the revolution because it pushes charges of terrorism against us internationally. It weakens the Syrian revolution’s strength at the negotiating tables, which requires sitting down and understanding a certain opinion to launch labels.
One of the factor that makes freedom of expression so important is that it frees the tongue to speak about every idea, whether it is true or false, whether it is against an international body, such as publicly and frankly declaring international inaction towards what is happening in Syria, or against a local party, such as the people’s opposition to the actions and treatment of external opposition forces regarding the Syrian situation.
It allows freedom of expression for all, especially the people, to express their opposition to the government when its decisions conflict with their values and what serves their interests, As happened in Syria and the Arab Spring countries, and like what is happening in Israel recently in terms of demonstrations and demands for the resignation of the Netanyahu government because of his decisions, or what happened in France when the yellow vests came out demanding reforms, and what is happening now in terms of demonstrations against the retirement law amended by the French government, all of this falls within the scope of freedom of expression. In accordance with what is stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Finally, I can only say that the Syrian revolution began with an opinion, that is the demand for freedom and liberation from the clutches of the Assadist dictatorship. Soon, the opinion developed into an idea, and continued until the present time. In order for this idea to continue, we must accept that we live in a country with people from different backgrounds, with a lot and different ideas, and many affiliations, sects and nationalities, each of them has the right to express opinion in a way that serves Syria’s interests first, and their rights and freedoms, at the second place.
If we adhere to a rigid mentality such as the Baathist mentality established by Hafez Assad, then his son Bashar, we will remain shackled, driven and led by external opinions and decisions that we have no interest or opinion about at all.
