The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) ( ar, الوكالة العربية السورية للأنباء (سانا), ) is a

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswir ...

, linked to the country's ministry of information. It was established in June 1965.

Website

SANA launched its website in 1997. Up until November 2012, SANA's website was hosted in

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, by the United States company

SoftLayer IBM Cloud, (formerly known as Bluemix) is a set of cloud computing services for business offered by the information technology company IBM. Services As of 2021, IBM Cloud contains more than 170 services including compute, storage, networ ...

. Due to sanctions related to the Syrian Civil War, which make this hosting illegal, the SoftLayer company was obliged to terminate its hosting responsibilities with SANA. SANA's English website states that the agency "adopts Syria's national firm stances and its support to the Arab and Islamic causes and principles with the aim of presenting the real civilized image of Syria."

Critiques

According to a German funded state public news agency ''

DW News ''DW News'' is a global English-language news TV program broadcast by German public international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW). The first program aired the summer of 2015. History DW News was launched on 22 June 2015 and replaced DW progr ...

SANA'' "when it comes to hard politics, the agency has a clear agenda" and "SANA, being a public news agency, has a stake in the conflict to support

Assad Asad ( ar, أسد), sometimes written as Assad, is an Arabic male given name literally meaning " lion". It is used in nicknames such as ''Asad Allāh'', one of the by-names for Ali ibn Abi Talib. People Among prominent people named ''Asad'', ...

's government."Dockery, Wesley (21 October 2016)
"A look at the Syrian Arab News Agency"
''

''. Retrieved 26 March 2020. The agency does not describe opposition groups as "rebels", but rather labels them "terrorists". In 2011, SANA published an article giving its version of events surrounding the death of 13-year-old Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb, an account which differed from

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazee ...

's.Friedman, Uri (31 May 2011)
"On Syrian State TV Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb Is No 'Child Martyr'"
''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''. Retrieved 26 March 2020. Al Jazeera had reported that Hamza "spent nearly a month in the custody of Syrian security" and when his corpse was returned it "bore the scars of brutal torture." According to Al Jazeera, "experienced local journalists and human rights researchers found no reason to doubt the authenticity of the footage of Hamza." According to SANA, armed groups arrived in the village of Saida and Hamza was found dead after the fighting and sent to a hospital to be identified. SANA, quoting a coroner, stated that Hamza died from three gunshots and that "there weren't any traces of violence, resistance or torture or any kinds of bruises, fractures, joint displacements or cuts." According to SANA, the photos of Hamza circulating online "were taken after an advanced stage of disintegration after death." SANA called reports in August 2013 about a chemical attack in Ghouta "baseless" and an attempt to distract UN inspectors who had arrived in

to probe earlier allegations of chemical weapons use."Syria chemical weapons allegations"

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 26 March 2020. SANA had reported that "terrorists" were responsible for firing a rocket containing chemical materials in the Khan-al Assal area of Aleppo province in March 2013. In August 2015, after a three-day visit to Syria during the Syrian civil war, the new emergency relief coordinator of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

Stephen O'Brien Sir Stephen Rothwell O'Brien, (born 1 April 1957) is a British politician and diplomat who was the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. O'Brien assumed office on 29 May 2015, succee ...

, told reporters he was "absolutely horrified by the total disregard for civilian life by all parties in this conflict."Mackey, Robert (17 August 2015)
"Syrian State TV Edits Out Criticism From Visiting U.N. Official"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. Retrieved 26 March 2020. O'Brien condemned the conduct of rebel groups and said government airstrikes in Douma "caused scores of civilian deaths and hundreds of people were injured." SANA posted an edited video of his remarks on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

which faded to black before he described the Syrian government's attack on Douma. The Syrian state broadcaster further omitted O'Brien's description of what he witnessed at the Old City of

Homs ar, حمصي, Himsi , population_urban = , population_density_urban_km2 = , population_density_urban_sq_mi = , population_blank1_title = Ethnicities , population_blank1 = , population_blank2_t ...

Managers

*Fawaz Jundi (1965–1966) *Hussein al-Awdat (1966–1971) *Marwan al-Hamwi (1971–1975) *Saber Falhout (1975–1991) *Fayez al-Sayegh (1991–2000) *

Ali Abdul Karim Ali Abdul Karim ( ar, علي عبد الكريم) (born 1953) is a Syrian diplomat. He is the first Syrian ambassador to Lebanon. Before that he served as the ambassador to Kuwait and as the general manager of the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), ...

(2000–2002) *Ghazi al-Zeeb (2002–2004) *Dr. Adnan Mahmoud (2004–2011) *Ahmad Dawa (2011–2017) *Abderrahim Ahmed (2017–2021) *Iyad Wannous (2021–present)

References

External links

Syrian Arab News Agency
Official Website (in English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Syrian Arab News Agency 1965 establishments in Syria News agencies based in Syria Government of Syria Arab news agencies Government agencies established in 1965 Mass media in Damascus

Website

Critiques

Managers

See also

References

External links