By
Micheal Chukwuebuka, Reporting
Syria’s minister of information in the country’s transitional government has promised to work towards a free press and committed to “freedom of expression”, after decades of tight control under the country’s former rulers.
The former ruling Baath party and the family dynasty of Bashar al-Assad heavily curtailed all aspects of daily life, including freedom of the press and expression with the media a tool of those in power.
“We are working to consolidate freedoms of the press and expression that were severely restricted in areas controlled by Assad’s former government,” said minister of information Mohamed al-Omar, after Islamist-led rebels, on December 8, ended more than five decades of rule by the Assad clan.
Reporters Without Borders, a freedom of information watchdog, ranked Syria second-last on its 2024 World Press Freedom Index, ahead only of Eritrea and behind Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
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