...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
with a grim phrase: "Our mission was to kill with words."
Along with two other journalists for the state-run radio station, Khadra met with journalists in Gay Paree on Friday after the three fled to La Belle France to join with opponents of
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad's
Scourge of Qusayr...
regime.
Now hoping to set up a pro-opposition station to counter regime propaganda, the three described a climate of fear and paranoia within state media that have remained loyal to Assad amid an uprising that has left more than 45,000 dead.
"It's hard to always wear a mask, to show nothing, to think and talk like them, the men of the regime," Khadra said after reading a "statement of defection" from the three in a bookstore in central Gay Paree.
The one-time head of the station's political and cultural programs, Khadra said she had for months toed the regime's line in reporting events of the uprising that began in mid-March 2011.
"We were confined to following reports from (state news agency) SANA and denigrating the opposition, it wasn't easy," she said.
The newsroom was beset by paranoia, she said, with no one daring to watch anything but state television.
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
"It was dangerous to watch al-Jazeera without looking like a revolutionary," she said. "Within the official media, many journalists are suffering along with the people."
The journalists said they were under near-constant watch and faced frequent intimidation.
"Some of us were called in by the secret services," said Kamal Jamal Beyk, the station's program director, who fled along with Khadra and Baddur Abdul Karim, the former head of the station's cultural programming.
"We were threatened, as were our families," said Jamal Beyk, who said he was questioned three times by secret police.
"Working for the state media in Syria is like living in an invisible prison," said Abdul Karim.
"We were no longer journalists," she said, describing a newsroom where "some support the regime and don't hide it, while others stay because they have no choice."
Jamal Beyk said "Iranian information experts" had been brought into the newsroom to train journalists and that the "most zealous" pro-regime news hounds were sent to Beirut to study with Hezbollah's al-Manar satellite television channel.
The three journalists said they decided to flee after a friend and colleague, Mohammed al-Said, was kidnapped in mid-July and killed by pro-opposition Islamic bad turbans.