Pro-regime Media Rallies Against Facebook Protests

SMN No. 13, February 2, 2011

The pro-government media in Syria has hit back at calls on Facebook by Syrian activists for demonstrations following the recent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

Syrians have launched a number of Facebook pages calling for similar change in Syria and organising protest events, including a number planned for February 5.

In response, a pro-regime Facebook page with more than 1000 members was set up calling for marches in support of the Syrian regime and its president on the same day, and activists also left messages in support of the government on the walls of the protest groups.

The pro-regime al-Watan newspaper led with a front-page story on February 1 claiming that “the feelings of Syrians rose up when they saw groups of saboteurs call through [Facebook]… to spread chaos in Syria and broadcast to incite sedition”.

According to the newspaper, this “provoked the feelings of many young Syrians on Facebook and got them to form groups of large numbers calling to pay no heed to such rumours,” with many of these activists posting images of the Syrian flag and the president, demonstrating  “the size of the awareness for the benefit of Syria”.

The newspaper alleged that those behind the anti-regime were “saboteurs” and not actual Syrians, claiming that there was an Israeli presence in some of those groups.

The pro-government website Akselser also published an article by its editor, Abdullah Abdul Wahab, expressing his love and pride for the “humility, openness and wisdom” of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

In the piece, published on January 31, Wahab denied that what happened in Tunisia and Egypt could possibly be repeated in Syria, because the regime “doesn’t have relations with Israel and does not follow America”, he said.

Referring to the Facebook groups calling for demonstrations and protests in Syria, he said they were organised by “people with fictitious names, outside Syria” and with no credibility. Syrians had totally rejected their calls, he added.

An article on the pro-government website Shukumaku the same day highlighted the groups formed in opposition to the “unknown figures” behind the anti-regime pages, reproducing some comments from the pages commending the policy of the Syrian regime and emphasising the continuity of the system and the impossibility of a repetition of the events in Egypt and Tunisia.

A Syrian journalist, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Damascus Bureau that it was “rare that the official or semi-official press cover any opponent activity or speech inside or outside the country, except when the aim is to deliver specific security messages or of defamation, as happened in some cases before”.

He added that the recent stories on the Facebook protests indicated “the worry and fear of the regime of the potential Facebook offers to citizens to communicate and organise themselves, similar to what happened in neighbouring countries”.