Are Critics of the Syrian Regime Safe in the UK?
Are Critics of the Syrian Regime Safe in the UK?
Award-winning Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim had her legally-issued Syrian passport seized when she entered the UK at Heathrow airport on 22 September. She was told that Damascus had reported it stolen and was advised to contact “her government” if she wished to resolve the issue.
Erhaim is an outspoken critic of the Assad regime who works as the Syria coordinator for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Based until recently in Aleppo, the scores of citizen reporters she has trained, around a third of them women, are now among the very few able to provide eyewitness accounts of events on the ground.
Without a usable passport, Erhaim has been left in legal limbo and questioning why the UK government appears to be facilitating the Syrian repression of independent voices.
She will answer questions on the alarming precedent this confiscation sets as well as the current situation in Aleppo.
Thursday 13 October 2016, 11am
Meeting Room, Arab-British Centre
1 Gough Square
London EC4A 3DE
Please RSVP to Chris Doyle – doylec@caabu.org
Spaces limited.
The event is co-hosted by the Council for Arab British Understanding (Caabu), the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, the Frontline Club, Index on Censorship and Reporters without Borders.
For specific media requests please contact: Daniella Peled (IWPR) daniella@iwpr.net 07976 550123
Zaina Erhaim, 30, is a Syrian journalist educated in Damascus who has an MA in international media from City University in London. She returned to war-torn Syria in 2013.
For more information, please see IWPR's Syria Coordinator Wins Landmark Freedom of Speech Prize.
