DUBAI: Media watchdogs have called on Syria’s new leaders to ensure the safety of all journalists in the country, and bring to justice those responsible for killing, imprisoning, and harassing media workers during Bashar Assad’s regime.

“While we wait for the missing to return and the imprisoned to be released, we call on the new authorities to hold the perpetrators to account for the crimes of killing, abducting, or jailing reporters,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

CPJ is also urging the new government to allow journalists and media workers access to information and locations without the fear or risk of being detained or questioned.

Syria is among the most dangerous countries for journalists ranking in 179th place out of 180 countries in the latest World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.

Since 2011, more than 181 journalists have been killed — 161 by regime forces and 17 by Russian airstrikes — in addition to multiple others tortured and imprisoned by the Syrian regime and its supporters, according to RSF data.

Jonathan Dagher, head of RSF’s Middle East desk, said: “We demand that Bashar Assad be prosecuted for his crimes. Justice, long overdue, must finally be served for all victims of his abuses.”

He added that RSF is also aware of crimes against journalists committed by the Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham, which has taken control in Syria, and called on the Islamist group to “hold their responsible members accountable, and to release all journalists still detained in the country, including those they have taken hostage.”

Dagher added: “Syria’s future leaders, whoever they may be, must ensure the safety of journalists and allow a free press to flourish.”

CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, which calculates the percentage of unsolved journalist murders in each country relative to its population, has seen Syria make the list for the last 11 years, including as the top offender in 2023.

Since the Assad regime’s collapse, HTS has been releasing prisoners, with RSF confirming the release of two journalists: Syria Media Monitor’s Hanin Gebran, who was detained in June 2024, and blogger Tal Al-Mallouhi, who was detained in 2009.