Enab Baladi

Enab Baladi (Arabic: عنب بلدي‎‎) is a Syrian nonprofit media organization established in Darayya, Syria in 2011.

History and profile

Enab Baladi newspaper was first launched in 2011 by a group of citizen journalists and activists from Daraya, a Syrian town in Damascus suburbs. In January 29, 2012, issue #0 was published marking the beginning of a revolutionary newspaper. Since then, it has been printed each week on Sundays, with one two-week stoppage in August 2012 due to Darayya massacre committed by Assad forces.

Enab Baladi's mission is to serve a role in educating Syrian citizens through in-depth public interest reporting, including investigative journalism and news reports to elevate important social topics at the local level. Enab Baladi helps advance a democratic society in Syria by producing independent and credible journalism that informs the Syrian public about important issues.

Every week, a new issue of Enab Baladi newspaper is published. The publishing process takes two forms: print and digital. The print version is distributed in Syria as Enab Baladi currently prints around 7,000 copies every week and distributes them in northern parts of Syria (Aleppo and suburbs, Latakia and suburbs, and Idlib and suburbs) and in Turkey to Syrian refugees. The printing takes place in Turkey and then shipped to Syria. Enab Baladi used to print and distribute in the southern parts of Syria but after Assad forces destroyed its office and equipment in Daraya, the team was forced to start printing and distributing in northern Syria. The PDF version of the newspaper reaches hundreds of thousands of subscribers and fans, whether through electronic distribution list, Enab Baladi website and/or social media pages including over 0.65 million Facebook fans.

Since its establishment during the first year of the Syrian uprising, late 2011, EB has focused on promoting the peaceful resistance methods to counter the sectarian and violence narratives of the Syrian regime. Enab Baladi succeeded in providing the Syrian people with trusted information about events in Syria through its weekly newspaper. EB coverage included the human rights violations perpetrated by the Syrian regime, as well as the inception of the nascent Syrian civil society, in addition to various news and topics in the fields of politics, economy, and social affairs.

Growth

The newspaper grew from amateur-run organization into becoming one of the most prominent Syrian media organizations according to BBC Syria profile page.^[1] Currently, Enab Baladi produces several products, Enab Baladi Weekly Newspaper,^[2] the Enab Online News Service Website,^[3] The Syrian Print-Media Archive,^[4] and its latest English news website.^[5] These projects are supported by a network of reporters and journalists who strive to give credible reports from the ground in Syria.

Enab Baladi succeeded in drawing the attention of many local and international media. Its story appeared on BBC, France 24 Channel, Spiegel Online International, The Guardian, Al-Arabiya, and Al-Jazeera among many others. The French famous magazine “ELLE” published a story about EB’s women team, “THE "GANG OF GIRLS" RISKS THEIR LIVES TO REPORT FROM INSIDE A WAR ZONE”. Around ten women are working as reporters, editors, and translators for EB. ELLE article tells the story of one of them, Kholoud Waleed, and highlights the role that women played in the establishment of the newspaper, the challenges they faced during their work as citizen journalists in Syria and the success they achieved.

Partnerships, alliances, and coalitions

Enab Baladi built relationships with many international organizations such as National Endowment for Democracy, Internews, Free Press Unlimited, European Endowment for Democracy, l’Association de Soutien aux Médias Libres, Adopt a Revolution, L'agence française de coopération médias, Norwegian People’s Aid, and International Media Support.

Enab Baladi also joined many alliances and coalitions:

• The Ethical Journalism for Syria Alliance (EJSA) in partnership with more than 30 Syrian independent media organization and funded by Free Press Unlimited. The alliance aims at restoring and improving the basic fundamental rights of freedom of speech, thought, and expression in Syria via a gender sensitive multi-level approach.
• The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (ICSC), and implemented a project of documenting the verbal heritage of the Syrian conflict in partnership with ICSC.
• The Syrian Network for Printed Media (SNP) with four other Syrian independent newspapers, through which, EB is printing and distributing its issues inside and outside Syria.
• The Syrian Regional Program (SRP) to provide media exposure to Local Councils in Syria, the Assistance Coordination Unit (ACU), in addition to multimedia reports about local initiatives inside Syria.^[6]

Awards

The newspaper won two awards through two of its co-founders, Majd Sharbaji who won the U.S. State Department Women of Courage Award,^[7] and Kholoud Helmi who won the 2015 Anna Politkovskaya Award ^[8]

References

External links

• Official website