E-mails Show Syrian Regime’s Efforts to Handle The Media

The Assad family’s relationship with the media reads like a romance gone sour.

The young Western-educated couple initially received praise from the foreign press for attempts to reform the decades-old police state, only to be relentlessly criticized starting in early 2011 for a brutal crackdown on demonstrators.

Thousands of recently leaked e-mails purportedly taken from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s inbox, and subsequently obtained by CNN, paint a tense relationship between the regime and the media.

The Syrian first lady, Asma al-Assad, once described as “a rose in the desert” by Vogue magazine, encapsulates the issue in an e-mail to Al-Mayassa al-Thani, daughter of the emir of Qatar, during the August 2011 government raid of the flashpoint city of Hama

“Contrary to media reports, the army did not enter Hama (yet), though the place is rife with violence,” writes the British-born former investment banker. She then mentions attempts at negotiations and adds, “Of course debate and dialogue is not the language that attracts the media these days, so little is mentioned, but the impact on the ground is significant.”

While the Syrian government consistently dismisses Western media as part of a conspiracy to destroy the stability of the nation of 22 million, al-Assad’s inner circle, among them journalists, appear very much engrossed in media relations.

Former Al-Jazeera correspondent Luna Chebel often seems to provide public image advice to the president, and she wrote in early January: “Martyrs’ funerals are held in poor ceremonies, everyone wears a different colored suit and they look very sad. In my opinion, we should have massive funerals with drums. This might help build momentum and boost morale.”

Chebel quit the Arabic news channel along with four other women in 2010 over a dress code conflict with senior management, according to local media reports. In April 2011, in a controversial interview on state-run television Al Doniya, Chebel claimed Al-Jazeera “fabricated news” and warned Syrians not to watch foreign satellite channels.

In December, the regime’s press aides appeared totally consumed with al-Assad’s upcoming interview with the American TV correspondent Barbara Walters of ABC, sending a flurry of e-mails to advise Assad on his tone, language, and even dress.

“It would be worth mentioning how (your) personality has been attacked and praised in the last decade according to the media. At one point (you) were viewed as a hero and in other times (you) were the ‘bad guy.’ Americans love these kinds of things and get convinced by it,” an e-mail forwarded to the president by himself said. It did not mention the original sender.