“Al -Jazeera in Syria” .. a movie that tells the story of 14 years of the network and recalls its martyrs policy
The fourteenth anniversary of the Syrian revolution, and the first after the liberation of the entire country from the regime of ousted President Bashar al -Assad, and during these years, Al -Jazeera channel accompanied the course of the revolution and its articulated transformations, providing exceptional coverage that paid its price for the martyrdom of 7 of its journalists and photographers, as well as the injury of others.
The film “Al -Jazeera .. in Syria” documents this journalistic journey, reviewing the events that changed the features of the country, and recalling the journalists who lost their lives in order to transfer the truth.
The film, prepared by journalist Mahmoud El -Kan, and presented by the media, Khadija Bin Qena, takes viewers on a journey through time to redraw the Syrian scene since the outbreak of the protests in March 2011 until the present moment.
With the beginning of the revolution, Al -Jazeera was at the heart of the event, carrying the massive demonstrations that swept the Syrian cities, from Daraa to Damascus, Homs and Aleppo, where the cries of protesters demanding freedom and dignity documented.
With the escalation of repression, coverage turned from monitoring of demonstrations to documenting violent confrontations, and the channel’s correspondents in the field were sending their reports amid grave dangers.
Whereas, the shield of the cradle of the revolution was, the correspondent Muhammad al -Masalmeh (Al -Hourani) was killed by a sniper from the regime forces while covering the battles.
In Damascus countryside, producer Hussein Abbas lost his life when a shell fell on his car to be one of the most prominent victims of the country’s journalistic work.
Likewise, photographer Mohamed Al -Asfar was martyred while covering the clashes in Daraa, while his colleague Mohamed Nour survived, despite being shot in his foot.
The island was there
In Homs, one of the most prominent cities of the revolution, Al -Jazeera cameras documented the siege, starvation and destruction that its inhabitants suffered, where more than 100 people were killed in the Houla Plain in a horrific massacre, the island had a prominent role in revealing the chapters of this tragedy, as the photographer Zakaria Ibrahim was martyred while covering the events there.
As for Aleppo, the city that witnessed the harshest chapters of the war, as it was the scene of other sacrifices.
The journalistic work in Syria was not merely a transfer of events, but rather a testament to the size of the tragedy, as the island’s correspondents were not merely carriers of the news, but rather lived its harsh moments, and suffered from the same risks that the Syrians were exposed to.
In Eastern Ghouta, where the Syrian regime used chemical weapons, journalist Mohamed Nour was injured several times with toxic gases, stressing that the transfer of the truth was not an option, but a professional and moral duty.
New challenges
In other regions, such as Idlib, Deir Al -Zour and Raqqa, the island continued to cover the political and field battles and developments, and with each stage, the channel was facing new challenges, from bombing its offices to targeting its journalists, but that did not stop it from performing its media message.
After more than a decade on the outbreak of the revolution, the Al -Jazira team returned to the streets of Damascus, which was banned from them because of the decision of the previous regime to close the channel offices. This return symbolizes the end of a long era of ban, and to a new beginning in covering the Syrian issue from the heart of the capital.
The film was not limited to documenting the Al -Jazeera march in Syria, but rather raised deeper questions about the future of the country after years of conflict, and revived the memory of journalists who sacrificed their lives in order to communicate the truth, and highlighted the role of the media in conflicts, and the challenges faced by journalists in the conflict areas, where the truth remains the most expensive price.
