DAMASCUS: Syria's minister of information in the country's transitional government said that he is working towards a free press and committed to "freedom of expression", after decades of tight control under the country's former rulers. "We are working to consolidate freedoms of the press and expression that were severely restricted" in areas controlled by the former government of Bashar al-Assad, said the minister, Mohamed al-Omar.
"There was a heavy restriction on freedom of the press and expression under the regime which practised censorship. In the period to come, we are working on the reconstruction of a media landscape that is free, objective and professional," Omar said.
Diplomats from around the region and from the West have made contact with Syria's new rulers, who have also vowed to protect the country's religious and ethnic minorities. "We don't want to continue in the same way, that is, have an official media whose aim is to polish the image of the ruling power," Omar said. — AFP
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