No longer Assads mouthpiece, Syrian media face uncertainty [Video]

Syrian media outlets which trumpeted the glories of Bashar al-Assad’s oppressive rule quickly adopted revolutionary fervour after his ouster, but uncertainty shadows the sector.

For decades, Syria’s ruling Baath party and the Assad family dynasty heavily curtailed all aspects of daily life, including freedom of the press and expression.

The media became a tool of those in power.

When a rebel alliance led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took Damascus on December 8, announcing Assad’s overthrow after an 11-day offensive, confusion reigned and state news agency SANA, the government mouthpiece, went silent for more than 24 hours.

State television broadcast old programmes instead of the fast-evolving events. Then a group of men in the news studio read a statement from the “Damascus Conquest operations room”. They announced “the liberation of the city of Damascus and the fall of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad”.

Those words would have been unimaginable two weeks earlier.

For hours, the channel then broadcast a full-screen message on a red background announcing the …