Journalists Sued For Digging Too Deep

Journalists from the pro-government Al-Dabbor newspaper have asked prime minister Muhammad Naji al-Otri to intervene in a case against the newspaper’s editor and a reporter, according to a July 1 report by the pro-government news site Syria Steps.



The journalists are being sued in a civil and military court after publishing a report that implied corrupt officials were to blame for the neglect of archaeological remains in the city of Idleb. In the report, they recommended that the official in charge of the sites bring in a committee to investigate the damage that has been done.



The official is now suing the reporter and editor-in-chief, accusing them of slandering the authorities and threatening a government employee. The news site did not name either plaintiff or accused, but Al-Dabbor’s chief editor is Bassam Taleb, and the offending article was authored by Hala Gharibi.



In a statement published by Syria Steps, the journalists rejected the allegations against them, and said they should not be taken to a military court over such a report.



The journalists urged Otri to intervene in the case and to create a new law to protect journalists from being sued or arrested for articles they write.



They said they had been fighting corruption for years, and had documentation to back up the allegations made in the article.