Television in Syria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Television in Syria was introduced on 23 July 1960 with the launch of Channel 1, during the period in which Syria and Egypt were united as the United Arab Republic.
Syrian television channels are predominantly owned and operated by the Syrian General Authority for Radio and Television (GART), which is affiliated with the Ministry of Information. The organization employs approximately 4,800 staff, including both government employees and freelancers.
Television in Syria is mainly received through free satellite and digital terrestrial.
History
Prior to 1976, all television broadcasts were aired in black and white. In 1985 a second channel was established and in 1995 Syrian television rented a channel on Arabsat and it started broadcasting eight hours daily via satellite in 1996.
Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the state has been engaging in a "media war" to combat the criticisms broadcast from other popular media outlets viewed in the Arab world and internationally, such as Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera. In Ba'athist Syria television coverage championed the government against Syrian opposition islamist rebel forces such as Al-Nusra Front, Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front. According to BBC Arabic, it also tended to omit or downplay reports of civilian casualties in its coverage of confrontations with what the Assadist government labeled as terrorist groups.[1] The Arab League officially asked the satellite operators Arabsat and Nilesat to stop broadcasting Syrian media in June 2012.[2][3] On 27 April 2013, Al Jazeera Media Network announced that it was suspending indefinitely its activities throughout Syria because of alleged intimidation and threats against its staff.[4]
The collapse of Ba'athist and Assad family rule in late 2024 brought challenges to the media landscape in Syria as it is unclear whether the new Islamist-led Syrian government would relax censorship and allow more press freedom.[5]
List of channels
Satellite channels
- Aleppo Today
- Alyaum TV
- Fadaat Media
- GART
- Al-Souriya TV
- Syrian News Channel
- Noor Al-Sham (suspended)
- Syrian Drama TV (suspended)
- Syrian Education TV (suspended)
- Massaya TV
- Orient TV
- Prime TV
- Sama TV
- Sham TV
- Suboro TV
Formerly
- Al-Jisr TV
- Addounia TV
- Arrai TV
- ORTAS:
- Spacetoon (shut down in Syria)
- Suriya al-Ghad
- Syria al-Shaab
Digital Terrestrial channels
- Al-Souriya TV, also known as Syria TV (since 1995)
- Syrian News Channel, also known as Al-Ikhbariyah Syria (since 2010)
- Drama 24 (suspended)
- Sakaker Kids TV (suspended)
- Sports TV (suspended)
- Syrian Local Channel (since 2022) (suspended)
