..Free Cartoonist Akram RUSLAN

The Criminal Assad regime has arrested and detained a journalist and cartoonist whose work was highly critical of the regime, and whose artwork has been published throughout the ongoing Syrian Intifada

AkramRuslan, was arrested on October 2ed when Assad intelligence seized him from his office at the newspaper Al-Fidaa in Hama

His detention has been confirmed by the Syrian Journalists Association and a number of posts on Facebook, but his exact whereabouts or the situation he is currently facing are unknown

Ruslan, whose work has been published on numerous pages on Facebook among other locations, has been producing work criticizing the Criminal government, the Intifada and the state media over the past year

His latest cartoon (top) depicted dictator Bashar al-Assad surrounded by flames, holding a sign declaring “Al Assad or we burn the country.”

The DCMF- Doha Center for Media Freedom- issued a statement urging the Syrian authorities to release the cartoonist

“The DCMF strongly condemns the detention of the cartoonist, Akram Ruslan, who is currently being held by the Syrian authorities for exercising his right to freedom of expression. The centre urges the Syrian authorities to release Rslan immediately and to put an end to the ongoing targeting of journalists and critics of the Assad regime. The government must do more to ensure that members of the media are protected and do not face intimidation, harassment or detention as a result of carrying out their work

DCMF has expressed solidarity with Syrian journalists who are working in some of the most difficult and dangerous conditions anywhere in the world at the moment, and we urge the government to ensure that Akram Rslan and any other journalists under detention are released immediately and face no further persecution”

Earlier on August 25, 2011, Ali Ferzat, the 60-year-old famous cartoonist was dragged and beaten by three masked men, who then also broke his hands

It was only a matter of time before Ruslan was arrested as he continued tocriticize the regime and its oppression, going so far as to attack the President himself
Ruslan did not hide and he remained in his home and at his job in the Hama-based Fedaa newspaper. The regime eventually lost its patience with him and arrested him from his workplace on Monday, October 2, 2012. Since then, there has been no information about him

Akram Rslan, born in 1974 in Soran, Hama, (mid-east Syria) is an 1996 literature graduate. He is one of the many, many members of our revolution who prefer to struggle away from the media and the limelight, and whom we know little about until they get arrested or martyred. Freedom for the artist Akram Ruslan

See selection of Rulan's work

Criminal Syrian Regime Prevents Syrians From Entering Syria

..An Eyewitness Story

Since we started our journey from Beirut at 4:30 in the afternoon we were told that the road is packed 

Syrian guy who works with me called me from his Syrian phone and told me that the Lebanese are not cooperating with them and they closed the doors of the frontiers office and not stamping any documents for any one

After a while he calls to tell me that he’s at the Syrian borders and the security there are asking them to buy an exit visa and go back to Lebanon and they are treating people aggressively and that he saw a man being hit by the back of the gun. He called for a third time saying that he paid 1500 SYP to pass

We reached the Lebanese boarders and there were lots of people coming in from Syria. I asked the soldier at the checkpoint he said it’s been like this since very early in the morning as lots of people are coming back from the Syrian borders and specially from those cities like Idlib, Homs, Aleppo and so on

In the middle of the nomansland, the line of cars started and we saw people walking back in Lebanon’s direction. It was when we decided to walk to the Duty Free to use the toilet. We asked some of the people going back about their story, they said they are from Idlib and they were denied entry and are forced to go back and that they were at the borders since 6 in the morning. Vans packed with family were returning same direction as well and children are crying

Near the duty free, there was a young soldier with a gun and he asked us where are you going so I tld him to the bathroom and I asked him what’s going on here, he said we are ordered to check severely as there are new about Sa’ad Al Hariri smuggling terrorists and weapons to Syria and he said with his accent (بدي قلك مع انه ما لازم قلك) we were informed that there are 2000 armed men in Anjar! I asked him why Syrians are going back to Lebanon, he said those people just remembered they love their countries and they are coming to make troubles

We went to stamp our papers and I asked the officer at the counter what is happening, he said it’s Wa’afeh and there are lots of people and we are working maximum capacity. I asked him is it true you’re asking people to go back; he said no it’s a lie! Then another one of higher rank said the other frontiers are closed (north) that’s why there is so many people

We waited for our driver to get out his care around 2 hours and he finally came and we moved to the customs checkpoint but before we reached it there was a huge line of cars waiting at a checkpoint with security armed men stopping car by car and checking papers and asking some people to return back to Lebanon as simple as this. I came down of the car as our driver went to stamp the car papers and started smoking a cigarette and was watching what’s happening. One of the armed men came to us and he asked for alight. And I asked him why people are returning he said only the people who are not supposed to come this way, like the northern regions, they should go from the other borders points as it’s safer for them, I asked him, are they opened? He said yes

A bunch of poor guys were forced to wait at the side of the road I sneaked and talked to them, they said they are from northern regions and they are asked to wait and denied entry to Syria. A guy from Daraa said we are letting us in as well as people from Sweida

A full bus from Idlib just returned to Lebanon in from of our eys! It was so sad

All buses and vans are checked one by one and ID’s are separated and people are walking either back or onwards depending on their ID

   

From Russia with BLOOD

From Russia with BLOOD

free Razan

Why Syria's arrested blogger, Razan Ghazzawi, is one of my heroes

 Jillian C York

A consummate activist, let's hope my friend's belief in the power of people is well placed and helps secure her freedom

Razan Ghazzawi, a Syrian blogger, has been arrested. Photograph: Jillian C York

I got an urgent instant message from my good friend Razan Ghazzawi last Tuesday night. Having tweeted and blogged against the Syrian regime for the past several months under her real name, from inside Syria, Ghazzawi was concerned that she had become a target. 

Always prepared, she sent me her contingency plan: close her online accounts. Syrians who have been arrested and detained over the past nine months have reported having their passwords demanded by authorities. Though closing her accounts wouldn't help her, it could protect her friends – that's the kind of person Ghazzawi is.

Those close to her say that she was on her way to a workshop in Jordan organised by her employer, the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, when she was arrested. Though it's difficult these days to understand anything the Syrian regime does, her blog may have been the impetus for her arrest, or it may not have, but in either case her outspoken writing could very well make things worse for her.

By birth, Ghazzawi is an American citizen – though she would undoubtedly resent the idea of that being used to free her. In any case, it is unlikely that the US government could have any pull with the Syrian regime at this point.

I met Ghazzawi in 2008 at a conference in Europe. We only connected briefly – she was working on her master's thesis – but we kept in touch and when I visited Syria the next year, reconnected. She is a consummate activist, never content to let something slide, always thinking, sometimes too much. She is passionate about LGBT and gender rights, Palestine and, of course, her beautiful Syria.

Though Ghazzawi had blogged under her own name for several years, at the start of the Syrian revolution she had a change of heart, changing her name on Twitter and locking down her Facebook account. I never asked, but I assumed she was scared. She left for a while for Lebanon, then Egypt, but ended up back in Syria soon after; I can only assume she felt compelled to return.

Eventually, she decided against anonymity, returning to her former outspoken nature and tweeting, her opposition to the regime coming across loud and clear. 

What I appreciate and respect the most about Ghazzawi (and what I suspect is what irks a lot of other people about her), however, is her honesty and humanity. Though a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights, she has denounced the double standards of Palestinian resistance groups that have expressed support of the Syrian regime. She has not been afraid to speak up against those she disagrees with, even her friends. For that, she is among my heroes.

She has also been pragmatic, sceptical even, of the role of social media in Syria and throughout the region, consistently claiming that "online activists are overrated". Bemused, annoyed even, at all of the invitations she's received to represent Syrian digital activists at conferences, she has taken a pragmatic approach to the effect of digital tools in Syria, where access to the internet hovers at around 20% and DSL is mostly unavailable outside of Damascus.

Last time I saw her, at the Third Arab Bloggers Meeting in Tunis, she drove the point home: after learning that Palestinians had been denied visas to attend, she slapped a sign on her back that read: "OK, [Palestinians] denied entry. Let's not just tweet about it!"

It is ironic then, that her own online outspokenness may be the cause of her arrest.

In respect to the Syrian opposition, Ghazzawi has been thoughtful, nuanced, writing about her love of Syria and her desire for a simultaneously free and peaceful Syria. On her blog, she recently wrote:

         "Colonisation made us all a bunch of nationalists [fighting] for a label [rather] than for a value. I want to be living hand in hand with all of you, and this cannot be done if we see ourselves as 'majorities' and 'minorities.' The foundation of this logic lies in nationalism."

But if there is one thing that represents Ghazzawi more than anything, it is her belief in the power of people – not politicians, not parties, but individuals. "It's time for people's self-determination to rule the region, you just wait and watch," she wrote in October. Let's hope that her prophecy is correct.

the guardian

مثقفون لبنانيون يدعون الى وقفة تضامنية مع الشعب السوري في ثورته

منذ خمسة اشهر والنظام الاستبدادي السوري يصم اذنيه عن المطالب المشروعة

للشعب السوري. ما يريده السوريون لأنفسهم هو الكرامة الانسانية والديموقراطية والعدالة الاجتماعية، وانهاء كابوس ديكتاتورية الجمهورية الوراثية.

نحن الموقعين على هذا البيان نعلن شجبنا للعنف الذي يمارس ضد الشعب السوري في ثورته السلمية الديموقراطية، وندعو المواطنين اللبنانيين الى وقفة تضامنية في التاسعة من مساء الاثنين 8 آب امام تمثال الشهداء، نضيء فيها الشموع، ونرسل من خلال شهداء 6 ايار اللبنانيين والسوريين رسالة تضامن الى الشعب السوري الشجاع والنبيل. 

Monday, August 8 · 9:00pm - 10:00pm

صفحة الفيسبوك "هنا"

CSR / Syrian Rev Songs - دافعو عن الحرية - أغاني الثورة السورية

سوريا لا تسجلينا غياب - أغاني الثورة السورية - CSR - Syrian Revolution Songs

تحية إلى المواطن الصحفي في سوريا - CC - Syrian Citizen Journalist

تحية إلى المواطن الصحفي في سوريا - - CC - Syrian Citizen Journalist