By Ramez Tabba’

Syrian Arab Republic is one of the most strict countries when the question of public freedoms including the freedom of thought is concerned. The diversity and overlapping censorship parties, in addition to the dispersed constitutional and legal referential authorities make it difficult to put this matter at one dimension.

There are more than one censorship authority in Syria assuming their work independently in terms of  structure, and method of work. Therefore, the topic of creativity and thought censorship is an intricate one with an ultimate end which calls for investigating the military structure of the regime based on compulsive tendency.

The authority invented a set of censorship mechanisms seen as a peculiour model in our human history. This set is even peculiour to many totalitarian regimes dominating during the past century including both the pateriotic socialists (Fascist) and the Marxist communist ones. They are even peculiour to the highly centralised military systems dominated the third world and some European countries in the second half of the past century.

This research tackles censorship on creativity and thought being the only two activities secured in all conventions and universal declarations of human rights being a part of the personal freedom.

When speaking about creativity and thought censorship, we mean censorship prior to publication that interfering with ideas before disclosing them to the public. Many countries have abandoned this type of “control” to replace it with the post publication censorship practised by the civil society institutions and its social functionaries who resort in this to the judicial say.

Officially, the Department of Censorship at the Syrian Ministry of Information is the only authority that deals with censorship. However, practically speaking, the final say with regard to the publication, printing, and TV broadcast  permits   goes to several other overlapping and intricate authorities to be mentioned separately later on. 

Censorship of the Ministry of Information 

The Creative Book

The creative book cycle starts in the Ministry of Information which distribute the manuscripts to the concerned parties. If it is a story, novel, poetry or literary criticism, it goes to the Arab Authors’ Federation (in Damascus) where a secret committee formed by the Chairperson of the Federation according to their loyalty volume to him, the manuscript is either admitted for publication or rejected. The red lines or the so-called the unpermitted publications are rubber-like lines in certain cases but they turn into steel lines in others according to the mood of the censor-person. One point in the case is the novel by the Syrian novelist Khairi Thahabi called “Hisham or going round in the Place” which was rejected in 1997 due to a personal dispute between him and the Federation chairperson who assaulted the writer in cooperation with some of the Executive Bureau members.

Surprisingly, the logic of censorship in local papers is not identical with the Federation’s logic as the above novel had been published in episodes in “Al-Thawra” paper’s supplementary where it was read by people.

Another event occurred with he writer Ali Abdullahh Sa’id as the Federation’s censorship rejected his novel “Sukkar Al-Halwasa” (Sugar of Illusion). The censor person heavily insulted him using pages of his manuscript. The Federation denied publication to any of Ali Abdullah Said’s works although some of them had already been published by the Ministry of Culture in Syria.

Sometimes,  writer would be a target of a police chase and investigation only because of his creative writing as was the case with the writer Abdel Baqi Yusef who was called for investigation at the political security department because of his novel “Broyen”. Another case is that of the writer Neirouz Malek who was arrested for some days due to a creative text that he sent to “Al-Thawra” (the revolution) paper and was not published as Amid Khouli- the editor in chief at that time sent it to one of the security departments.

As a result, many Syrian writers resorted to other countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt to publish their creative writings that would be provided to the Syrian readers in secrecy or by putting them at the book exhibition. This goes to most of the novels produced in the past three years such as “Halat Shaghaf” (A state of love) by Nihad Sireis and “Al Walad Al-Jahel” (The ignorant boy) by Fawaz Haddad and “Hammam AnNiswan” (The Bath of Women) by Faisal Khirtesh.     

The Intellectual Book

The intellectual book is subject to another censorship cycle that begins at the Ministry of Information and goes through the Party Orientation Bureau at the State Leadership of the Ba’th Arab Socialist Party. Here, the book has to pass through several paths. If it is a political one, it will be subject to a study by several parties including a security one. If it is a  religious one, it is sent to the religious parties accredited by the State.

Many studies and books were embargoed and sometimes their manuscripts disappeared among these many parties! Therefore, the intellectual products of the Syrian writers and intellectuals go now to the neighboring Arab publishing houses who apply less intricate censorship laws. This of course affected the Syrian intellectual movement as the writings published in Syria are limited to those books studying the “President’s” thought and its meanings. 

Television Series

Being creative works, TV series are subject to a prerequisite censorship by the Ministry of Information who have a committee to read texts prior to giving permission of execution. After that, there is a committee to cross-check the written text with the depicted one. They request the omission of some depictions or even ban the series or the TV film.

The fact that there are no lists of taboos in this respect does not mean that there aren’t some embodied lists that all those working in this field know about. These embodied lists are expandable and reducible as desired by the blue pencil holder.

Among the Syrian TV series that have undergone such a desire is the Series written by Hasan Yusef and directed by Najdat Anzur called “Ukhwatu AtTurab” (Brothers of Soil) where the Ministry of Information omitted all scenes related to Sheriff Hussein. For, the Syrian authorities at that time (1996) and as stated by the Minister of Information Moh’d Salman were unwilling to have any tribute of the Great Arab Revolt to be paid to the Hashemites.

Artist Yase Al-Azma was summoned several times to the intelligence Department by virtue of his series

“Maraya” Mirrors which also underwent the blue pencil operations before being screened on the Syrian TV. Once , Mr. Al-Azma was summoned because of a scene that goes back to the Ottoman era called “Al-Wali” Sukjuk The Governor Sukjuk where he makes fun on the Prime Minister as a thief and a corrupt person. 

Censorship by the Ministry of Culture 

Books

The Ministry of Culture operates an independent censorship apparatus that authorizes it to print creative and intellectual books as well as granting permissions to movies and theatre  texts. Syrian Intellectuals have always known that the book denied by the complicated censorship of the Ministry of Information is sent to the Ministry of Culture where it can be easily granted the permission of publication. This, of course, depends on the committee of reading at the Ministry of Culture which includes writers with less commitment than that of the Federation Committee to the patriotic matters. However, this system does not let  some of the problematic works pass even if their authors are from the Ministry of Culture itself. For instance, the huge work by critic Moh’d Kamel Khatib about the Arab Criticism History was denied publication in some of its parts after being printed as they include texts and quotations from some books that have already been banned. 

Plays

Censorship on written plays is different than that on performed plays. The Committee of Text Reading operating under the Department of Theaters and Music at the Ministry of Culture include a number of specialists who give permissions to implement theatrical works and there is a watching committee who give the laisser passer after introducing some modifications if necessary.

So often had the reading committee refused theatrical texts with no vindication as the banned list is kept only in the minds of the committee members who decide denial or granting permission. One point in the case is Nubukhath Nassar Play written by Talal NasrEddin who was denied the permission of performance or printing due to an implicit reason related to the Gulf war as he was told by one of the Committee members. 

Movies

This means the Syrian movies which are subject to the censorship of the Text Reading Committee at the Public Corporation of Cinema. It is a committee of a group of experts who give permission for three successive times. A movie undergoes a three phase cycle: the first phase is that of the literary scenario, the second one is the executive scenario (decoupage) and the third one is release (screening). Each phase requires approval of a specialized or functional committee. This if the work is produced by the Public Corporation of Cinema, but if it is a private sector production, the cycle is reduced to two phases; namely,