The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) () is a

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

state-owned State ownership, also called public ownership or government ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, property, or enterprise by the national government of a country or state, or a public body representing a community, as opposed to ...

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...

, linked to the country's ministry of information. It was established in June 1965. SANA publishes more than 500 news stories and 150 photos on a daily basis and operates in multiple languages: Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Turkish, Persian and Russian. The agency is also a member of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA).

History

Website

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

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, by the United States company SoftLayer. 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." Prior to the collapse of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, the website was offline due to hacking attempt attributed to unknown source.

Reception during Assad Regime

According to German news agency ''

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

; "''when it comes to hard politics, the agency ANAhas a clear agenda" and "SANA, being a public news agency, has a stake in the conflict to support Assad's government." It is critical of Western governments, including the US, which push for

regime-change Regime change is the partly forcible or coercive replacement of one government regime with another. Regime change may replace all or part of the state's most critical leadership system, administrative apparatus, or bureaucracy. Regime change may ...

in Syria. 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 Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

'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 based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

''. Retrieved 26 March 2020. Al Jazeera 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 from August 2013 on 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. SANA had reported that anti-government forces 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 emergency relief coordinator of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

, Stephen O'Brien, 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'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

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

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, editing the footage as a form of backlash, fading it to black before playing audio of his description of the government's attack. SANA also omitted O'Brien's account of events from his time in the Old City of

Homs Homs ( ; ), known in pre-Islamic times as Emesa ( ; ), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level, above sea level and is located north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is ...

. During the fall of Damascus on 8 December 2024, the outlet went inactive for 24 hours before changing its cover picture on

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

to match the three-star flag used by rebels the next day.

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 (2000–2002) *Ghazi al-Zeeb (2002–2004) *Dr. Adnan Mahmoud (2004–2011) *Ahmad Dawa (2011–2017) *Abderrahim Ahmed (2017–2021) *Eyad Wannous (2021–2024) *Zyad Mahameed(2024–present)

References

External links