Syria Times

Syria Times is an English-language Syrian daily newspaper.

Syria Times is published by the same government-owned company that prints the leading Arabic daily Tishreen. As of 2000, these two newspapers had a circulation of 5,000 and 60,000, respectively.

In March and April 2003 the Syria Times received some international attention because of its harsh condemnation of the US-led war against Iraq, well in line with the official Syrian discourse in the debates of UN’s Security Council. For instance the Irish Times noticed that the “Syria Times attacks Bush's "unholy war" and his "imperialist strategy to control the Arab oil-rich region””.

In an interview with the Middle East magazine, Fuad Mardood, editor of the Syria Times, said: “I cannot imagine that there is anyone in Syria who wants to attack our policy (…) You can find people who have personal motives who may attack the system, but it is only to achieve personal goals.”

In late May 2008, Mohammad Agha was released from his position as editor-in-chief of Syria Times. The decision was apparently made by the Minister for Information, Mohsen Bilal. A history of differences between the two had been reported. The official reason for Agha's termination was failure to catch a mistake regarding the caption accompanying a photograph.

On June 8, 2008, the Syria Times closed for an indefinite period of time. Various reasons were given, chief amongst them issues relating to the contract for the new editor-in-chief. A report on the viability of the Syria Times was delivered to the People's Assembly (the Syrian parliament) in July, and assistance was requested to restart the newspaper.

Following lengthy delays, a 2-year agreement (since extended) was signed with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to assist the newspaper to the tune of $900,000 used for analysis, restructuring, training and equipment. No official date has been set for recommencing publishing of the Syria Times.

The Syria Times is an official daily e-newspaper in English, issued by Al-Wedha Establishment for Press, Printing, Publishing and Distribution, affiliated to the Ministry of Information. The daily was, due to technical reasons, closed on June 8, 2008, and re-launched on October 6, 2012 at the directives of the Syrian Minister of Information, Mr. Omran Al-Zou'bi. In 2008, the Ministry of Information, State Planning Commission, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) signed on a Support to the Syria Times Project to assist the Syria Times to restart, as to facilitate it to become, according to an earlier UNDP press statement, a space for continuous dialogue between media, government, citizens, civil society, expatriates and internationals in Syria. The daily covers, according to its editor-in-chief-, Dr. Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim, several political, social, economic, environmental, cultural and miscellaneous issues, mainly- but not restrictively- related to Syria. Even though the Syria Times e-newspaper is more visible to domestic, regional and international public via the web, as the main source of news about Syria in English, a print copy of the daily is, hopefully, expected to be published later on.

On October 6, 2012, Minister of Information, Mr. Omran al-Zou'bi inaugurated the first Syrian E- newspaper " Syria Times". The launching coincides with the country's celebrations of the 39th anniversary of the Liberation War of October, led by the late President Hafez al-Assad.

On the importance of the re-launching the "Syria Times" e-newspaper, Minister al-Zou'bi said: "We are in need for new tools to communicate with English-speaking communities, as to address the people of these communities and present our views and causes the way they understand, and not the way we want to."

Minister Al-Zou'bi asserted that the launching of this e-newspaper is not a kind of political or media luxury, but is an urgent need to communicate and interact with the other in complete transparency, accuracy and credibility.

The Minister underlined the need to make a success of the "Syria Times", so as to achieve its hoped-for goal and to attain wide circulation by publishing it in different languages." Minister Al-Zou'bi asserted the need to restore the paper copy of the newspaper since this kind of publications still have their own readers.

"I think this is very important to convey our media message to wider categories of readers." the minister concluded.

Director General of al-Wehda Press Foundation, Dr. Khalaf al-Meftah, expressed hope that the re-launching of the Syria Times would be a further step forward by the Syrian Media, in continuation of the ongoing tireless media efforts as to disseminate the reality of the events on the ground, and as to expose media outlets of fabrications and lies.

On his part, the Syria Times Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim, underlined that the daily, at the directive of Information Minister, Mr. Omran al-Zou'bi, would adopt in its media coverage the main principles and ethics of journalism, including those of transparency, credibility, and objectivity. The main contents of the daily focus on issues and topics related to national reconciliation, dialogue, society, politics, Syrian Expatriates, environment, tourism, archaeology, sports, economy, culture, as well on other interactive varied topic and issues of debate. added Al-Ibrahim.