Syrian activists set up news services on Facebook

  

"Yes, we can confirm to you now that the president lifted the state of emergency." Translation by the Syrian Uprising 2011 Information Cetnre

 

SMN No. 17, April 26, 2011 

Two new Facebook pages provide news updates in English about the Syrian uprising.The page “Monitoring Protests in Syria” defines itself as “an online page for monitoring human rights violations during the protests in Syria”, and connects itself to the page of the American organization “Human Rights Watch”. In addition to publishing their press releases regarding Syria, the “Monitoring Protests in Syria” page gathers news from different Syrian bloggers, activists and sometimes directly from eye witnesses. The page also provides links to selected articles from the Western media about the Syrian events, in addition to spreading calls from Syrian activists to demand the release of detainees, especially journalists and civil servants. 

The founders of the “Syrian Uprising 2011 Information Centre” page describe themselves as “a group of Syrians who are not members of any political group” and “ not part of the Syrian Opposition”.  The intention of the page, according to them, is “ to provide accurate information about the uprising in Syria in English”. This Facebook page provides news updates on what is happening in different Syrian cities and towns, depending on various sources. It especially focuses on video uploads from Syria and provides English transcription.