: A Year of Searching for Forcibly Disappeared Journalists
As in every year, the Syrian Kurdish Journalists Network, through its Freedoms Center and the Monitoring and Documentation Office of Violations, has issued its annual report covering the period from the end of December 2024 to the end of December 2025, which documents the state of press freedom in Syria and monitors the violations committed against journalists and media workers during a year marked by profound political and security transformations, without these developments reflecting positively on the environment of journalistic work, or on respect for professional ethics by journalists themselves
Syria at the Bottom of the World Press Freedom Index
According to the 2025 report of Reporters Without Borders, Syria ranked 177th out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index, making it one of the most dangerous environments for media work, amid the continued arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearance, physical assaults, and restrictions on journalistic activity.
Key Findings Documented in 2025:
According to the report, this year did not witness the killing or assassination of journalists, although the statistics of the International Federation of Journalists for 2025 documented the killing of 128 journalists worldwide, more than half of them in the Middle East, and among the most prominent cases monitored were:
• Cases of arbitrary arrest and detention of journalists in Damascus, its countryside, As-Suwayda, the Coast, and northeastern Syria.
• Physical and verbal assaults during field coverage.
• Security summonses and pressures on the basis of critical reporting.
• Incitement campaigns and defamation through social media platforms.
• Targeting of press crews through drone attacks.
• The continued seizure of the homes and properties of journalists in several areas, in clear violation of international humanitarian law.
37 Journalists Remain Missing in Syria
The report indicates, based on data from Reporters Without Borders, that Syria alone accounts for 37 missing journalists out of 135 worldwide, making it the country with the highest number of forcibly disappeared journalists globally, and despite the fall of the former regime, their families continue to await truth and justice.
2025: The Year of Defending the Forcibly Disappeared
This year, the Network dedicated its union work to demanding the disclosure of the fate of forcibly disappeared journalists, through a broad solidarity campaign in which journalists, human rights defenders, and international organizations participated, affirming that the right to know the truth is a right that does not lapse with time, and that impunity undermines any path toward transitional justice.
Recommendations
The Network concluded its report by calling for the implementation of several important recommendations, as it urged:
• The formation of independent and transparent committees to reveal the fate of the forcibly disappeared.
• The reform of national laws to criminalize enforced disappearance and strengthen judicial independence.
• The activation of international obligations, particularly Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
• The adoption of independent international mechanisms to ensure accountability and prevent impunity.
The protection of journalists is not merely a professional demand, but a fundamental condition for safeguarding the right to know, strengthening the rule of law, and supporting any genuine democratic transition in Syria.
To access the full 2025 annual report, you may visit the website of the Syrian Kurdish Journalists Network through the link attached in the comments, noting that the Network traditionally publishes its reports in the first month of the new year, however, due to the unstable security conditions experienced in the region, and in solidarity with our people and their hardship, its publication was postponed until today, a delay that did not affect its content.
