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State TV puff piece goes awry as residents protest for cameras

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: A state television shoot in a besieged Damascus […]


17 February 2015

MuadamiyatA-Sham321

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: A state television shoot in a besieged Damascus suburb was met by protests on Sunday, with residents demanding detainees still held by the regime be released.

In the picture above, posted by the Moadimiyet a-Sham Local Coordination Council Facebook page, a group of the city’s residents demonstrated Monday and raised banners reading “your freedom is more valuable than our truce,” referring to the truce signed with the regime last year that has not been implemented.

The demonstration was in response to an agreement made two days ago between the regime and the town council to allow Syrian state television to film in the area in exchange for several concessions, including allowing gas to enter the towns and restoring electricity.

But when a state television crew entered Moadimiyat al-Sham Monday, they were met by a demonstration calling for the release of the town’s arrested residents and also expressing solidarity with Douma, which had been relentlessly air-bombed by the regime for weeks. State media was not able to obtain any footage that would serve the regime’s interest, said an activist inside Moadimiyat.

“The newscaster Kanana Haweja entered the city with a camera team and began filming the city and interviewed several residents who spoke about the arrestees and the destruction that occurred during the shelling, which embarrassed the newscaster as she was not able to deliver any reports serving the regime’s point of view,” Waseem al-Ahmed told Syria Direct on Tuesday.

In retaliation, al-Ahmed said, as soon as the television crew left Moadimiyat, the regime permanently closed the only entrance into the town and launched two artillery shells into the city’s east, causing several injuries, an account corroborated by the town LCC’s Facebook page.

“The only crossing to the city is still closed and it is forbidden for anyone to come or go except for employees and students who have been permitted, but neither they nor others are allowed to bring anything with them, not even a piece of bread,” the LCC said in its post.  

-February 17, 2015

-Photo courtesy of Moadimiyat a-Sham LLC

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