An interview with Akram al-Ahmed on the work of journalists in Syria and the situation in war-torn Idlib.
"At the beginning our primary goal was to deliver an honest picture of local events and train journalists. With the development of the radical groups and their attempt to incorporate journalists, we began to counter that by trying to strengthen the democratic idea and support local councils, women’s centres, or organizations that work with children. However, the main focus remained training journalists. In 2015 we founded the “Code of Conduct” together with other Syrian journalists’ associations who shared our values, as we all believed that something had to be done against things like fake news and hateful propaganda."

Lebanese views on the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
This article highlights two unexpected Lebanese reactions to the Iranian events unfolding on a world stage brimming with expectations. Leaving aside the Shi‘i case, as that aspect has been dealt with at length elsewhere, particular attention must instead be paid to Lebanese Sunni Islamist and leftist thinkers. Taken together, their writings demonstrate that the revolutionary period, and the early 1980s in general, were a laboratory of both ecumenical Islam and serious attempts at forging a leftist-Islamist alliance.

In 2011, Syrians took to the streets. They first demanded democratic reforms and greater freedoms and subsequently called for the downfall of President Assad’s dictatorial government. As the protest movement gave way to violent conflict and lacked viable opportunities to pursue their goals via the political system in power, many activists who opposed the arming of the revolution established civil society organisations as a vehicle to continue their movement, and to meet the needs of Syrians whose lives had been upturned by the war.