Al-Watan (Syria)

For other uses, see Al-Watan (disambiguation).

Al Watan
الوطن
TypeDaily newspaper
Founder(s)Rami Makhlouf
PublisherSyrian Arab Publishing and Distributing Company
EditorWaddah Abed Rahbo[1]
Associate editorAnton Pidor
News editorGanbalat Shakai
Founded2006; 18 years ago (2006)
Political alignmentPro-government
LanguageArabic
HeadquartersDamascus
CountrySyria
Sister newspapersAl Iqtissadiya
WebsiteAl Watan.sy
Al Watan Online.com

Al-Watan (Arabic: الوطن, lit. 'The Homeland') is a privately owned government-aligned[2] Syrian Arabic language daily newspaper published in Syria.

History and profile

Al Watan was launched in 2006.[3][4] The paper is published by the Syrian Arab Publishing and Distributing Company. It is the country's first private daily newspaper since the 1960s (not counting the state party organ Al-Baath), but its editorial line and reporting is practically identical to that of the public-owned papers.[2] In fact, the owner of the daily is the cousin of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Rami Makhlouf.[3] Its sister daily is Al Iqtissadiya.[5]

The online edition of the paper was the 33rd most visited website for 2010 in the MENA region.[6]

After the fall of the Assad regime in 2024, the newspaper published a statement from its editor-in-chief Waddah Abd Rabbo saying that it was "only carrying out instructions and publishing the news (the government) sent us".[7]

References

  1. ^ "About us". Archived from the original on 2 October 2019.
  2. ^ a b Pies, Judith; Philip Madanat (June 2011). "Media Accountability Practices Online in Syria" (PDF). MediaAcT. Working Paper series (10/2011). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  3. ^ a b Dany Badran (2013). "Democracy and Rhetoric in the Arab World". The Journal of the Middle East and Africa. 4 (1): 65–86. doi:10.1080/21520844.2013.772685. S2CID 143657988.
  4. ^ Salam Kawakibi (2010). "The Private Media in Syria" (PDF). University of Amsterdam and Hivos. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
  5. ^ "Syria". Arab Press Network. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  6. ^ "Forbes Releases Top 50 MENA Online Newspapers; Lebanon Fails to Make Top 10". Jad Aoun. 28 October 2010. Archived from the original on 29 July 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  7. ^ "No longer Assad's mouthpiece, Syrian media face uncertainty". France 24. 21 December 2024. Retrieved 21 December 2024.


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