The Syrian Government has announced that it was merging two of the three state-owned dailies and issuing licenses for new private sector dailies and magazines.

The Wehda Press Institution, which currently publishes Tishreen and Al-Thawra, will be restructured into a joint-stock company regulated by the Company Law and named the Syrian Corporation for Media and Publishing. The new entity will issue a single daily newspaper under the Tishreen name as well as other national and regional periodical publications.

There are currently four political dailies in Syria: two are directly owned by the state – Tishreen and Al-Thawra – another is formally owned by the Baath Party – Al-Baath – while a fourth is owned by the private sector, Al-Watan.


A fifth newspaper, Baladna, is also published on a daily basis by United Group, the country’s largest private sector media group, but has very limited political content and covers mainly entertainment and celebrities news.

Meanwhile, the government has licensed six new daily newspapers and thirteen magazines that had received a preliminary approval from the Ministry of Information. Only one of these, Tafaol, or Optimism, is to be published on a daily basis.

The licenses now awarded are based on a media law passed last year, which is meant to give more press freedoms. In practice, however, the levels of freedom continue to be very severely curbed by the authorities.