''Syria-News'' is a privately-run online
press 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, newswi ...
intended to report news about
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 ...
. The website is financed by businessman
Firas Tlass
Firas Tlass (; born 20 August 1960) is a Syrian businessman and a member of a significant Sunni family who had close relations with former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, but defected to the rebels during the Syrian Civil War.
Early life and ...
.
Its editor-in-chief is
Nidal Maalouf r head of the Syrian Economic Center.
[
''Syria-News'' was launched in late 2003, at a time when most websites featuring political news about Syria were blocked in the country. This gave it a semi-official status, since it was approved by the ]Syrian government
The government of Syria takes place in a presidential system and is currently in a transitionary period under and led by a transitional government. The seat of the government is located in Damascus, Syria.
On 8 December 2024, after the succ ...
, and the participation of some ministers confirmed this status. The website became popular in Syria as an approved portal to discuss domestic issues.
In around 2011, after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the agency opened an office in Turkey and temporarily relocated there.[
]
Features
''Syria-News'' features domestic, regional, political, and economic news, as well as reports and questionnaires on Syrian issues. It has a discussion feature which enables users to comment on most articles, as well to submit contributions, both subject to admin approval.
In 2004, following cooperation with the British Broadcasting Corporation
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...
, it
launched ‘The place I live’, an area of the website to collect and forward public complaints to relevant government agencies and to publish officials' responses.
Notable contributors
* Zaina Erhaim
Web domain issues and changes
In 2006, the original official domain name of their website (www.syria-news.com) was hijacked, but soon later retaken. On February 18, 2008, all Syrian ISPs blocked domestic access to the site and its alternate URL (www.news-sy.com - occupied by another site as of 2024). Access was restored by March 6, 2008, though there was no official statement from the site or Syrian authorities.
As of 2024, the agency's domain is syria.news, and the original website is a redirect to that URL.
See also
*Media of Syria
The mass media in Ba'athist Syria consisted primarily of television, radio, Internet, film and print. The national language of Ba'athist Syria was Arabic but some publications and broadcasts were also disseminated in English and French. While ...
*Syrian Arab News Agency
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) () is a Syrian State media, state-owned news agency, linked to Ministry of Information (Syria), the country's ministry of information. It was established in June 1965.
SANA publishes more than 500 news storie ...
References
External links
syria.news (Official website)
Syrian news websites
Arabic-language websites
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