The Syrian revolution was fought to tear down a police state, not to replace it with a replica under a different banner. Today, Assad’s dungeons of Damascus may have been replaced by the security apparatus of Ahmed al-Sharaa (aka Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham – HTS), but the arrest of New York journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem proves that the transitional administration is replicating the very tyranny from which Syrians died in their thousands to escape.

The social media firestorm that preceded Bilal’s arrest centered on his interview with an Egyptian sheikh regarding the citizenship rights of foreign fighters.

The truth is that Sheikh Abu al-Yaqzan al-Masri, whose real name is Muhammad Naji, is a man of little importance to most Muslims. In the grand scheme of geopolitics, the Egyptian cleric is a minor figure, perhaps even a strategic nuisance, but journalists must be allowed to interview whoever they choose.

The interview was a vital expression of press freedom.

A free press is not defined by its adherence to government-approved narratives; it is defined by its right to interview the controversial, the marginal and the inconvenient.

A free press........

© Middle East Monitor