Two private Syrian publications criticize the information and foreign ministries
Syria, Politics, 7/14/2003

The recently licensed private Syrian magazine Abyad Wa Aswad ( Black and White) has criticized the performance of the Syrian foreign ministry at the UN Security Council, while the other private magazine al-Mohawer ( the dialogue maker) also specified more than 40 pages of strong criticism to the media policy in the country.

Abyad Wa Aswad said that the foreign ministry caused embarassment for Syria in its non- participation at the special session of the UN Security Council on discussing the humanitarian status in Iraq during which UN Security Council resolution 1483 was voted over on lifting the sanctions against Iraq. The magazine considered that the Syrian foreign ministry, as an establishment lost some of its flexibility and dynamism like other establishments in Syria.

Despite the fact the a long time has elapsed since this incident, however, the timing of such criticism raised wonder among observers as this matter was absorbed at the internal and international levels. This magazine, however, is published in Damascus. It is owned by Muhammad Bilal al-Turkmani, son of the Syrian army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Hassan al-Turkmani.

For its part, al-Muhawer allotted a file of 40 page to the Syrian media in which more than 13 Syrian local press writers and journalists criticized the Syrian media performance at all levels, considering it as "the media of stone age in the 21st century." The magazine which is issued by several Syrian journalists and is printed in Beirut and did not get the permission to circulate this issue in Syria yet, following the Syrian printing law "which was a slap for the freedom of the press to the extent that one journalist commented on it that he had written in a police station ( Makhfar), rather than in an office ( Maktab).

The chief editor of the magazine Eyad Issa said that banning or preventing the circulation of this issue of the magazine will be the main indicator on the media openness in Syria.

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