Journalist working for AFP released by pro-Turkiye Syria factions

Local police from pro-Turkiye factions detained Kassem on August 26 in the city of Al-Bab, some 30 kilometers from the Turkish border. (Getty/File)

• Bakr Al-Kassem was detained for questioning by authorities, but no official charges were filed against him

BEIRUT: Syrian journalist Bakr Al-Kassem, who works with media outlets including AFP, has been released a week after pro-Turkiye factions detained him in rebel-held northern Syria, he told AFP on Tuesday.
“I was released late Monday and I am well. I am now with my family,” said Kassem, 28.
“I will return to my work as a journalist as soon as possible.”
Local police from pro-Turkiye factions detained Kassem on August 26 in the city of Al-Bab, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Turkish border.
He had been covering an event in the city with his wife Nabiha Taha, who is also a journalist.
Taha was released shortly afterwards and said their house was searched and Kassem’s computer, cameras and mobile phone were confiscated.
Kassem said he was questioned about his work as a journalist in areas controlled by Ankara-backed factions, and that no official charges were brought against him.
“We are relieved that Bakr has been freed and we thank all the colleagues and organizations that expressed their solidarity with him during his detention,” said AFP’s Global News Director Phil Chetwynd.
“We hope that he will be able to resume his work without any restrictions.”
Kassem has worked as a photographer and correspondent for AFP since 2018 covering Syria’s civil war, as well as a deadly earthquake in February 2023 in which he lost 17 family members.
He has also worked for Turkiye’s official Anadolu news agency and local Syrian media outlets.
AFP, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had called for his immediate release.
RSF in a statement on X welcomed “the good news” of Kassem’s release, saying it was “relieved” he was free, but noting “72 reporters remain detained or missing in Syria.”
The country is ranked second-last in the world on RSF’s press freedom index.
Local journalists and activists had organized sit-ins in the region demanding Kassem be freed, some holding signs reading “journalism is not a crime.”
Syria’s war began after the repression of anti-government protests in 2011 and spiralled into a complex conflict drawing in foreign armies and jihadists, killing more than 500,000 people and displacing millions.
Turkish troops and Turkiye-backed rebel factions control swathes of northern Syria, and Ankara has launched successive cross-border offensives since 2016.