COMMON ANALYSIS | Last update: December 2025
A journalist is a professional who is involved in the process of gathering, assessing, creating, and broadcasting news and information in newspapers, magazines, on the internet, on the radio, or on television. Other media workers include a wide range of roles such as producers, directors, technicians, and many others who are involved in the creation and dissemination of media content.
The analysis below is based on the following EUAA COI reports and query: COI Update, 5.; Country Focus July 2025, 2.2., 2.3.; Country Focus March 2025, 1.1., 1.3.5., 2.5.; Country Guidance should not be referred to as a source of COI.
Previously exiled Syrian journalists and foreign reporters have increasingly resumed reporting from within Syria since December 2024, including in areas formerly controlled by the Assad government. However, journalists and other media professionals have been targeted by different actors because of their activities.
Step 1: Do the reported acts amount to persecution?
Acts to which journalists and other media professionals could be exposed are of such severe nature that they would amount to persecution, such as killings, arbitrary detentions, and attacks. More precisely, journalists and other media professionals have been subjected to persecution by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Syrian National Army (SNA), and other (unidentified) armed groups and individuals. Unidentified armed individuals and groups targeted journalists reporting on conflict situation such as the violence in the coastal areas in March 2025. Other journalists were attacked and threatened by local armed factions in Sweida while covering the signing of an agreement with the Transitional Government in May 2025.
Overall, there is very limited information on the treatment of journalists and other media workers by the Transitional Government. One source mentions arbitrary arrests of journalists by the Transitional Government.
Step 2: What is the level of risk of persecution?
The individual assessment of whether there is a reasonable degree of likelihood for journalists and other media professionals to face persecution should take into account risk-impacting circumstances, such as:
-
Topic they report on: journalists and other media professionals reporting in conflict situations and/or on other sensitive topics (e.g. reporting on criminal acts committed by this or that actor) face a higher risk.
-
Perceived criticism: journalists and other media professionals who are perceived to be critical of the SDF, and/or the SNA in areas where those groups operate face a higher risk. Instances of targeted attacks and detention by those groups have been reported.
Step 3: Is there a ground for persecution?
Where well-founded fear of persecution is substantiated for an applicant under this profile, this is highly likely to be for reasons of (imputed) political opinion, as journalistic work reporting on sensitive topics may be perceived as political dissent.