Amid the alarming escalation of hate speech and sectarian incitement, which has become a pretext and a tool for systematic and large-scale attacks against the components of the Syrian people, the Free Media Union and the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate strongly condemn the dangerous and inflammatory role played by a number of Arab media outlets, most notably Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, and Al Arabiya Al Hadath, as well as official media institutions and figures affiliated with the Syrian transitional authorities.
These outlets have engaged in the deliberate dissemination of disinformation, false narratives, and direct incitement to violence and mass killings, with the clear aim of misleading public opinion and undermining Syria’s social cohesion and pluralistic fabric.
We consider these media institutions to be complicit in the falsification of facts and in the crimes currently being committed, particularly those targeting Rojava (North and East Syria). They have abandoned the most basic professional standards, violated the principles and ethics of journalism, and subordinated their platforms to political agendas, transforming them into tools of incitement, hatred, and social fragmentation.
Accordingly, the Free Media Union and the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate call for the immediate cessation of all forms of hate speech and incitement to violence, and stress the urgent necessity of adhering to the principles of professional integrity, independence, neutrality, and objectivity.
We further call upon all journalists, both women and men, to stand on the side of truth, human conscience, and professional responsibility, and to refrain from any form of complicity in the ongoing bloodshed in Syria.
We also urge all relevant local, regional, and international authorities, as well as human rights and legal institutions, to assume their legal and moral responsibilities by documenting these crimes of incitement and hate speech, preserving evidence, and taking serious and effective measures to put an end to these practices and to ensure accountability for those responsible, in accordance with international law.
Moreover, we hold journalists working within these institutions morally and historically responsible, and call upon them to abide by the ethics of the journalism profession, as well as by international charters, conventions, and standards governing media and press freedom.
Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate
Free Media Union
28 January 2026
