Islamists Shut Local Radio Station

A key local media resource in Kfar Nabel remains shuttered months after alleged complaints by Islamist group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham that it had failed to adhere to Sharia law.

Established by the Union of Revolutionary Bureau (URB) in July 2013, Radio Fresh and its sister site Fresh online provided news and entertainment to Idlib’s southern countryside as well as employing more than 100 men and women.

Staff members said that they were shocked when they learned of its closure in a Facebook posting by the URB’s board of directors.

The message read, “To all staff at Radio Fresh and Fresh Online: operations across all radio departments and website will be suspended as of June 14, 2016, until further notice.”

Ghayth al-Shaykh, 29, is a co-founder of Radio Fresh and the director of Fresh Online since it was launched on September 1, 2014.

“I could not understand the reasoning behind it when I first saw the circular posted by the organisation’s board of directors notifying staff that operations had been suspended at the radio and the website,” he said. “Indeed, the reason was unclear to start with. But later it transpired that the decision to close us down came in response to pressure exercised by Jabhat al-Nusrah [the groups’ name until July 2016, when they split from former allies al-Qaeda] on the board of directors.”

“I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. It was bound to happen with the media attacked from all directions. I was not sorry for myself, I was sorry for the 150 families who lost income from the closure of the radio and the website.”

“Armed factions intensified pressure to bring about the closure of the station,” URB director general Ra’id al-Faris, 44, said in an internal memo. “Impossible conditions were put forward that even a [religiously conservative] supporter from the Gulf would not have agreed to, let alone someone who regard these factions as terrorist organisations. They wanted it to be a joke, not a media outlet, and that is unacceptable.”

For their part, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham said that they had simply made reasonable requests from the radio station operators.

“The issue with the radio was simple,” said a senior Kafr Nabel Jabhat Fateh al-Sham leader, who asked to remain anonymous. “Those in charge of the radio could have easily chosen to carry on broadcasting. We did not ask the impossible. There were violations against Shariah; music and gender-mixing violations that could not be allowed by the Shariah of Allah. All we asked them to do was to stop making these violations and to continue with work as usual without further intervention by any party.”  

But Radio Fresh newsreader Nuha al-Khalid, 25, insisted that male and female colleagues worked at separate locations, communicated by exchanging memory sticks.

Al-Khalid has been left distraught by the closure, as the radio station had offered her and her family a financial lifeline.

“With no jobs around, life was hard for us,” she said. “But when Radio Fresh advertised for newsreaders I applied and was accepted. My colleagues and I were responsible for drafting and broadcasting news bulletins. Having a monthly salary was so helpful. I used to help my husband cover household expenses. He is a policeman who defected from the Assad regime.”  

Al-Shaykh said that the decision had been particularly galling given what they had achieved.

“In three years we managed to get Radio Fresh to the same level as that of advanced broadcasters,” he said.

“We started small, with only five staff members, little expertise and unsophisticated equipment,” continued al-Shaykh, who has a degree in Arabic literature.

“Later, we grew to employ more than 150 male and female staff at the radio and the website.”

Mahmud al-Anwar, 28, is another former staff member left unemployed by the closure. He was a fourth-year French literature student when he was forced to drop out of the government-run university for fear of arrest.

“I was jobless for a long time until I got a one-year contract [as an editor] with Fresh Online. During that period we faced a lot of pressure by influential factions on the ground. In the end, Radio Fresh and its website had to shut down under pressure from Jabhat al-Nusrah. I think us telling the truth is what caused the closure of Radio Fresh and its website. Citizens are being silenced by the powerful, and nearly 200 people have been left without jobs.”    

Many local residents are unhappy with the closures, not least because so many young people have been left unemployed.

One local elder, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “We heard that Jabhat al-Nusrah suspended Radio Fresh and its website for reasons to do with Shariah and for practices that run contrary to religion, such as mixing between the sexes and playing music.

“When we spoke to some of those in charge of Radio Fresh they dismissed all these allegations. They told us that they only broadcast revolutionary songs, that female employees at Radio Fresh worked at a separate building and that they did not mix with their male colleagues.

“So we, the elders of Kafr Nabel, urge Jabhat al-Nusrah to verify their information, because as a result many youths in the city are now jobless.”