Unknown people abducted Saleh Ibrahim, manager of the Syrian government-owned TV channel Al-Ikhbariya, from a friend’s real estate office in the capital, Damascus, on February 10, 2025.
Following the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, the new administration gave all public workers – including Ibrahim –three months paid leave while they restructured the government. Ibrahim was recently asked to resume his job under the new administration when he vanished, according to the Beirut-based press freedom group SKeyes.
CPJ was unable to reach any current employees of Al-Ikhbariya or confirm further details about the case.
The Syrian Ministry of Information condemned Ibrahim’s abduction in a February 14 Facebook statement, adding that the ministry is following up with the Ministry of Interior to investigate.
CPJ’s messages to Mohammed Al-Asmmar, foreign affairs relations officer at the Syrian Ministry of Information, requesting comment on the abduction and whether it was connected to Ibrahim’s journalism, did not immediately receive a reply.
After the toppling of Assad on December 8, 2024, several people were abducted in various areas in Syria, including an academic and a SANA photographer who was later found dead in a killing linked to a personal feud.