Free Media Union condemns media misinformation, targeting journalists in Aleppo

The Free Media Union in Qamishlo organized a protest in front of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights office in Al-Siyahi neighborhood to condemn the misinformation campaigns that accompanied the attacks launched by the mercenaries of the Syrian Interim Government on civilians and journalists in Aleppo city.

Journalists from various media outlets working in the North and East Syria Region participated in the protest, carrying banners with "Enough for falsification," "No to bias," "No to hatred," "Yes to peace," "Together without violence," "No to media misinformation," "Yes to the truth," and "No to sectarian incitement" written on.

After holding a minute of silence, the Free Media Union issued a statement, read in Arabic by the Free Media Union's advisor Binyad Jaziri, and in Kurdish by the co-chair of the Free Media Union in the North and East Syria Region Idris Hannan. The statement included,

" We, the Free Media Association, condemn in the strongest terms the grave crimes and violations that have been committed against civilians and journalists in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh in Aleppo city, including indiscriminate shelling, siege and targeting of civilian and health facilities, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.

The direct targeting of journalists through direct injuries, abductions, threats, and the prevention of independent reporting constitutes a systematic policy of silencing a free press and obscuring the truth and is a crime that requires legal accountability as an assault on freedom of expression and society's right to know the truth.

We also condemn the organized disinformation campaign led by the official media of the transitional government and the media supported and financed by the Gulf and Turkey, which aimed to justify the massacres, falsify the facts, whitewash crimes, present one-sided narratives and distort the role of the free press, in a way that makes those responsible for it accomplices in crime and holds them morally and legally responsible for the catastrophic consequences inflicted on civilians, especially women, children and the elderly, and for endangering the lives of journalists.

We therefore call for an immediate stop of the targeting of civilians and journalists, call for independent international investigations, and hold all those responsible accountable, and hold the aggressors and those who provide them with media and political cover fully responsible for the safety of civilians and media workers, including their full responsibility for hate speech, falsification of facts, sectarian incitement and all forms of disinformation that contribute to justifying crimes, fueling violence and undermining societal peace.

We affirm that the crimes committed do not lapse by statute of limitations, and that silencing a free press will not obliterate the truth, as it is the voice of the victims and the conscience of humanity.

We will remain biased towards humanity, with the truth, and with journalists.

Free Media Assciation

14 January 2026 ."