Tony Badran
Across the Bay
12 December 09
Roy Greenslade, a professor of journalism and blogger for The Guardian, is celebrating "the latest stage in the liberalisation of the Syria's [sic] media." If your head spun in bewilderment, unable to recollect when the "first" stage of "liberalization" even began, or if your sides split with uncontrollable laughter, wait till you hear the rest. Greenslade wrote:
Yes, indeed. The United Group. After all, what better harbinger of liberalization than the group's chairman, Majd Suleiman? Who is he, you ask? Don't worry, Professor Roy Greenslade didn't have a clue who he was either.
Majd Suleiman is the son of Bahjat Suleiman, the Alawite former head of the internal security division of the General Security Directorate. Nothing says "liberalization" better than the Syrian mukhabarat.
An English-language daily newspaper is being launched in Damascus tomorrow and will circulate throughout Syria. Baladna English, the country's first English-language paper, marks the latest stage in the liberalisation of the Syria's [sic] media. The publisher, United Group, already publishes the Arabic-language Baladna.
Yes, indeed. The United Group. After all, what better harbinger of liberalization than the group's chairman, Majd Suleiman? Who is he, you ask? Don't worry, Professor Roy Greenslade didn't have a clue who he was either.
Majd Suleiman is the son of Bahjat Suleiman, the Alawite former head of the internal security division of the General Security Directorate. Nothing says "liberalization" better than the Syrian mukhabarat.
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