Strategies and (survival) tactics: The case of Syrian oppositional media in Turkey

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the regulatory, financial and political environment negotiated by oppositional Syrian media operating in exile in Turkey, as well as to identify the main tactics used by them in negotiating between these constraints to ensure their survival in an increasingly difficult environment. As the war in Syria increased in intensity, many oppositional media chose to move their centres of operations into Turkey ‐ forcing them to adapt to a completely foreign regulatory environment, and an unstable political context. Furthermore, and in parallel, their institutional links with the media development sector were being deepened as well. The study draws on in-depth interviews with Syrian media professionals in Turkey, as well as with their interlocutors in international media development organizations. Using Michel de Certeau’s model of strategies and tactics, the study aims at arriving at a better understanding of the complex system of choices made by exilic media organizations to guarantee their survival and achieve their objectives. Within the strategic universes circumscribed by the powerful institutional actors of the Turkish state and the international media development sphere, one can locate the agency of Syrian media actors in their responsive tactical manoeuvrings. The article contends that the tactics employed are also reflective of the identity of these media actors located at the intersection of the alternative, exilic and oppositional.

Anatomy of a precarious newsroom: precarity and agency in Syrian exiled journalism in Turkey

“…Funding from international media development organisations and an open-door policy in Turkey allowed Enab Baladi, along with a significant number of new Syrian media initiatives established at the time, to develop rapidly between 2013 and 2016. The securitisation of the Syrian presence in Turkey and dwindling funding for media development (2016 onwards) ended that period of flourishing for emerging Syrian media (Badran, 2020). Enab Baladi was one of a handful of organisations that were able to consolidate their operations and later find space for expansion.…”

“…I had developed a relationship with the editor-in-chief of Enab Baladi through previous studies I had conducted on emerging Syrian media going back to 2014 (see, Badran, 2020;Badran and Smets, 2018). This relationship of mutual trust formed the basis for negotiating broad access to the newsroom, on condition of strict pseudonymisation of journalists' personal information, non-disclosure of any details about correspondents inside Syria (for security reasons), as well as ad-hoc requests of non-disclosure when more details were discussed or provided on certain contextual topics (e.g.…”

“…This ambivalence to publicness is telling of the changing fortunes and paradoxical feelings that Syrians have about their stay in Istanbul. It also seeps into the content of the media, as they consciously avoid reporting on internal Turkish politics (Badran, 2020).…”

Understanding Emerging Media: Voice, Agency, and Precarity in the Post-2011 Arab Mediasphere

“…Professionalisation in this sense, we would argue, is seen in the orientation towards more centralised organisational structures and editorial processes, a critical engagement with journalistic norms, and a focus on craft and higher production value. Organisationally, we witness a pronounced movement towards formally and publicly constituting the organisation as a registered (non-profit, in most cases and where it is possible) entity (Badran, 2020;. This is accompanied by a growing emphasis on editorial oversight and an elaboration of editorial policies and processes-e.g., with regards to sourcing, language/vocabulary, gender, etc.…”

“…(Personal communication, 2019) Secondly, they have to manage the dependency this funding model creates and the stark power imbalance between them and their international interlocutors. By 2016, the protraction of the Syrian conflict significantly shrunk the amount of media funding available and spurred a collapse and consolidation of the emerging media sphere into a handful of outlets (Badran, 2020). But it also crystallised some successful strategies for managing these contingencies, for example in the case of Enab Baladi, by spreading the risk across different donors and different sections of the organisation, thus attenuating the inherent imbalance of power with international media development organisations-albeit at the cost of growing administrative and bureaucratic complexity .…”