Helping journalists in need
All over the world, the organization “Reporters Without Borders” does its utmost to help at-risk journalists, bloggers and online activists – and right now is focusing particularly on fellow journalists from Syria.
“Nowadays, every journalist in Syria is a target”, says Syrian radio journalist Monis Bukhari about his homeland, a country from which he had to flee in 2011. As he explains, he had been charged with treason by Assad’s regime because he worked together with foreign media. The journalist first fled with his wife and daughter to Jordan and today lives in Berlin. From exile, he has observed that many of his colleagues are now leaving Syria, people who had long hoped that the war would finally come to an end.
“The situation in Syria has escalated”, agrees Jens-Uwe Thomas, who is responsible for emergency aid at the German branch of Reporters Without Borders (RWB) in Berlin. “The wave of people fleeing the country has increased among those who had long stayed put.” Today, he explains, most asylum-seekers in Germany come from Syria. “We are also seeing the consequences of this”, sums up Thomas on World Press Freedom Day. Since the beginning of 2014, he has already provided help to ten Syrian colleagues from his Berlin base. Most of the journalists who Jens-Uwe Thomas is currently supporting are already in exile in Germany. Others are still in countries neighbouring civil war-torn Syria, where they are likewise finding themselves under pressure. What they need is very concrete help. In Germany, Thomas finds lawyers to act for the journalists and supports them as they apply for asylum. In 2013, 68 fellow journalists – including some from Iran, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan – contacted the RWB emergency help section.
Bukhari is grateful for the support: “Reporters Without Borders answered all of my questions, found me a lawyer and continue to help me”, he says. When he recently needed to present himself at a job centre, the journalist was accompanied by an RWB colleague. Bukhari’s residence status has been clarified, he is learning German and he is continuing to work as a journalist for the Internet radio project “Baladna FM” (Our Homeland). He is now planning to set up a local Arabic-speaking radio station for his exiled compatriots in Germany so as to keep them better up-to-date with current events.
World Press Freedom Day on 3 May
