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Alert

Journalists tortured in Syria

(RSF/IFEX) - The following is an RSF press release:




Journalists tortured in Syria

Press freedom does not exist in Syria: no independent media are allowed.
The
country is at war with Israel, and a state of emergency has been in
force
since 1963, giving the security forces exceptional powers and
continuously
restricting citizens' basic freedoms. At least ten journalists, who have
been sentenced to between eight and 15 years, and often to hard labour
as
well, are believed to be held for non-violent "offences".

Reporters Sans Frontières gathered testimonies from journalists tortured
in
custody (Faraj Birqdar and Nizar Nayyuf are still in jail; Rida Haddad
was
released in 1995, just before dying from leukemia). The use of torture
is
systematic: interrogation is extremely violent, especially as prisoners
are
first kept in a solitary cell. According to some accounts, prisoners
have
died as a result of torture. Conditions are extremely harsh, and inmates
are
barely able to survive.

Reporters Sans Frontieres calls on the Syrian government to release
immediately and unconditionally all journalists imprisoned for
exercising
their right to freedom of expression, and abolish the use of torture and
ill-treatment in prisons and interrogation centres. It is necessary that
Syria supports and implements the convention against torture and other
cruel, inhuman or degrading penalties and treatment, adopted by the
United
Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1984.