Arrest of the Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi

Yesterday afternoon, on Sunday 4/12/2011, Syrian immigration police at Syrian/ Jordanian borders has arrested the activist and blogger Razan Ghazzawi on the Syrian-Jordanian borders,  while she was heading to attend the Forum of Defenders and Media Freedom in the Arab World in Amman representative of the Syrian Center for Media and freedom of expression (SCM).
 Razan Ghazzawi works as a media officer at the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM). She graduated of the Department of English Literature at the Faculty of Arts of Damascus University and holds an MA in comparative literature from the University of Balamand, Lebanon.
Her master’s thesis about the stories of the Iraqi writer Shimon Ballas, who lives between Paris and Palestine, where she discussed how the national speech effects on the former colonialized peoples to form a shadow identity of the modern state after independence.

Moreover, she wrote several articles and posts literary within media. She launched her personal blog (Razabiyyat) in 2009. http://razanghazzawi.com
Member of the Cultural Committee of the " Club of all people" 2005 – 2007 in Lebanon; she holds the second prize in Arab poetry from the University of Balamand, Lebanon; and she participated in the campaign to clean up the Barada River with the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) in 2007.
Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression condemns in the strongest terms the arrest and associate blogger Razan Ghazzawi and sees the continuation of the detention process restrictions and stifle civil society in Syria and the desperate attempt of abortion on the freedom of expression in Syria.
Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) condemns in the strongest terms the arrest of the colleague and  blogger Razan Ghazzawi, and it sees in her detention insistence from the authorities to continuation the process of putting restrictions and  stifle the civil society in Syria and the desperate attempt of abortion on the freedom of expression in Syria.
SCM demands the Syrian authorities to stop abuse of systematic practice against bloggers, journalists, and Syrians citizens. SCM demands to release the blogger Razan Ghazzawi immediately and unconditionally and to release all detainees in Syria and stresses on the need for Syrian authorities to respect the their international commitments that have committed themselves to it through the ratification of the conventions and treaties international. SCM holds the Syrian authorities responsible for any physical or psychological harm caused to the blogger Razan Ghazzawi.
Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)
5/12/2011