America, Syrian TV and Democracy

After unjust sanctions were imposed some time ago on Syrian al-Dunya TV, al-Watan newspaper and several websites, the world’s “leading” democracy is imposing new sanctions on media that also use the same “weapon.” Clearly, the General Authority on Radio and Television of the Syrian Arab Republic, like al-Dunya, al-Watan and other media, has been using the “weapon of words and pictures” that terrifies the U.S. so much. This is especially apparent now that it is becoming clear that this kind of weapon is used by America’s criminal apparatus against Syrian people, both civilians and military, as well as against Syria’s public and private facilities.

Why the sanctions? What is their intended goal? Are these sanctions consistent with the values of democracy and freedom that this great country, like other countries of the colonial West, brags about night and day?

In response to these questions and others, I want to say this: The main reason behind imposing sanctions on Syria’s national media and, recently, on many official television and radio channels is because they have managed to regain many spectators and listeners in Syria and abroad after their previous exodus to other channels for various reasons. Furthermore, the national media has succeeded in transmitting the truth on events in Syrian cities. It exposed armed terrorist gangs as well as those who support and fund them. It was also able to expose fabrications presented by biased media outlets like al-Jazeera, al-Arabia, France 24, Alhurra and others. The Syrian national media has successfully convinced many Syrians in the country and abroad of the role the U.S. has played in the events witnessed in Syria over many months. Even now, these events have nothing to do with a popular revolution; they are nothing more than armed terrorist gangs causing havoc by killing, kidnapping and devastating cities as they carry out foreign, primarily American and Israeli, agendas.

Clearly, the goal of halting cooperation with this important media agency is to undermine its credibility, discourage Syrian and Arab expatriates in the U.S. from watching it and create disapproval for true information and pictures transmitted by it in favor of information and pictures transmitted by biased and deceptive channels. America wants to create public opinion based on what is broadcast, transmitted and fabricated by these channels.

The sanctions, imposed under the pretext of the agency’s involvement in covering cases of repression against Syrian citizens, are literally political. They are further from the real values of democracy and freedom, and closer to the democracy of money, corporations and American and Israeli interests that is hostile to the interests of free societies and independent countries. They are far from the ethical and professional standards by which journalism is bound and closer to the standards of authoritarianism and dictatorship.

These and other facts constantly inform Syrian society – as the Minister of Information mentioned in his comments on the sanctions – that the American claim of supporting free media and respecting freedom of speech are spurious. The facts demonstrate that the values propagated by the U.S. and other Western countries are nothing but a cover for implementing their political agenda and serving their own interests. Their true face is mirrored in their support for the terror used by armed groups against our society, our institutions and our economic and social structure.

The question that poses itself in light of such an unjust, illegal, unethical and hostile decision is this: Where are you, protectors of media, democracy and free speech in the U.S., Europe and across the world? What is your stance on this decision and previous decisions enforced on media in Syria and elsewhere?

It is intended that you respond to these questions, even though we are convinced that your tongues are “tied” and your pens are “broken” for reasons that our great Syrian society have known for a long time. People understand that the last thing you think about and do is for their sake, or the sake of Syria and Arab society. I will not add anything else.