Media outlets that previously operated in rebel-held areas or in exile have returned to the forefront. Radio Rozana, Enab Baladi, Al-Jumhuriya Collective, and Aks al Seir are among the most widely followed. Qatar-affiliated outlets, such as Syria TV and Al Jazeera, remain influential, and most international news agencies resumed broadcasting from Damascus as soon as the regime fell.

For 50 years, the Assad dictatorship and the Ba'ath Party maintained strict control over the Syrian press. During the revolution, which began in 2011, the regime’s brutal crackdown silenced journalism in regime-held areas with assassinations and imprisonments. In rebel-controlled territories, armed groups also intimidated and detained journalists, many of whose fates remain unknown. In the aftermath of the regime’s fall in 2024, the new government promised to establish a sustainable framework for an independent press.

The fall of the regime brought an end to the enforcement of the legislative framework that the Assad government used to justify its repression. Yet, beyond the country’s authoritarian laws, the regime frequently relied on arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions. The new government has pledged to work toward “a free press” and to uphold “freedom of expression,” while Syrian journalists, media outlets, and local press freedom advocacy groups are calling for a new constitution that guarantees their right to information.

Under Bashar al-Assad’s regime, most Syrian media outlets — all affected by international sanctions against the country — were funded either by the state or by individuals close to the regime. While some of these outlets have ceased operations permanently or temporarily, how the media landscape will restructure its economy remains unclear. Exiled media financed by foreign entities — such as Syria TV, owned by the Qatari group Fadaat — have relocated their teams back to the Syrian capital.

After over 15 years of conflict, the polarisation of Syria’s society has left a lasting impact on the press. Journalists from the north of the country, who opposed the Assad regime and were labelled “media activists,” now work in the heart of the Syrian capital. Their ability to criticise the new authorities will be one of the key challenges as these highly influential journalists reposition themselves during the transitional period. Throughout the conflict, their personal social media accounts served as fully fledged media outlets in rebel-held areas.

Arrests, abductions, torture, assassinations — the Assad regime’s relentless persecution of Syrian journalists often forced them into exile to escape abuse or death. The transitional period has brought a period of relative security, but violent clashes between government forces and religious minorities on the coast, notably in the Rojava region and the city of Sweida, have exposed many journalists to violence and intimidation. Women journalists and journalists belonging to religious minorities are particularly vulnerable.