Halab Today TV is part of an extraordinary and spontaneous journalistic movement in opposition-held parts of Syria. It has at least two main rivals, Orient TV and Souria al-Ghad, which transmit from Dubai and Cairo, respectively. This is in a country that, until the revolution three years ago, had only three national newspapers, which were government-controlled, and only state radio and TV.

The media revolution began in April 2011, when people first took to the streets. Assad swiftly banned foreign journalists, and Syrians began filming the uprising on mobile phones and posting footage on the Internet or sending it to international broadcasters. They became known as video-activists.

“They wanted to tell the world what was happening,” says Armand Hurault of the Association de Soutien aux Médias Libres (ASML), a Paris-based media nongovernmental organization and implementing partner of the Syrian Media Action Revolution Team (SMART). ASML and SMART work with 300 people throughout Syria, Turkey, Jordan and France, supporting three radio stations, 12 newspapers and a dozen media offices inside Syria. They also give video-camera lessons on Skype and provide computers, printers, paper and ink, money and technical assistance.

MORE HERE: http://wonkynewsnerd.com/underground-journalism-keeping-fight-assad-alive-syria/