A Syrian journalist's saga with British authorities

The title

Syrian activist barred from travel after UK seizes passport at Assad’s request

attracted my attention.

Reading more, I could not believe my eyes.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/24/syrian-journalist-zaina-erhaim-passport-held-assad-request

She is an Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Journalism award winner
She is also a winner of the prestigious Chevening Award, which brings “future leaders, influencers and decision-makers” to study in the UK.
She works for a UK-based, UK-funded organisation.

Her passport was confiscated as she landed at Heathrow airport and after a thorough questioning, she was informed that the document had been reported stolen.
Her picture and fingerprints prove that she is holding her own passport.

Who reported the passport stolen? Not the passport holder. It is the Syrian Embassy of the Assad regime who reported the passport stolen. Their aim, to shut down voices that write or talk against the actions of the regime.

This is a regime that the foreign secretary Boris Johnson blame few days earlier at the Un security council to be "responsible for the vast majority of the 400,000 deaths" and reiterated “There can be no genuine ceasefire unless there is a genuine political agreement that we can have a transition away from the Assad government,”

So how come, nobody took notice of the fact that the credibility of the regime is at stake and that it cannot be business as usual with such a regime. In fact, the ties of the regime to the UK through his wife who is a British national and his long residence in London allowed them to create pressure groups within the country.

Since the start of the uprising, Assad formed a media task force to assist him set a media strategy and follow up on it.
Assad has access to unlimited funds from the state coffers, nepotism, and corruption.
He could bring on board a number of professional lobbyist and to a certain extent win the media war.

In March 2014 a number of emails intercepted from the Assad family inboxes were published According to The Guardian

"Much of Assad's media advice comes from two young US-educated Syrian women, Sheherazad Jaafari and Hadeel al-Al. Both regularly stress to Assad, who uses the address sam@alshahba, the importance of social media and the importance of intervening in online discussions. At one point, Jaafari boasts that CNN has fallen for a nom-de-guerre that she set up to post pro-regime remarks. The emails also reveal that the media team has convinced Twitter to close accounts that purport to represent the Syrian regime."

The end result is a BBC Arabic editorial policy that the least to say is unbalanced as to the conflict in Syria and an administration where the government policy does not seep through to the lower level.

Chief executive of Index on Censorship, Jodie Ginsberg said. “The message the UK sends when it takes such action is that it is not on the side of those struggling to defend human dignity amid the inhumanity of war.”