Al-Watan (Syria)

For other uses, see Al-Watan (disambiguation).

Al-Watan (Arabic: الوطن, lit. 'The Homeland') is a privately owned government-aligned^[2] Syrian Arabic language daily newspaper published in Syria.

Al Watan
الوطن

Type	Daily newspaper
Founder	Rami Makhlouf
Publisher	Syrian Arab Publishing and Distributing Company
Editor	Waddah Abed Rahbo[1]
Associate editor	Anton Pidor
News editor	Ganbalat Shakai
Founded	2006; 19 years ago (2006)
Political alignment	Pro-government
Language	Arabic
Headquarters	Damascus
Country	Syria
Sister newspapers	Al Iqtissadiya
Website	www.alwatan.sy www.alwatanonline.com
Media of Syria List of newspapers

History and profile

Al Watan was launched in 2006.^[3][4] The paper is published by the Syrian Arab Publishing and Distributing Company. It is the country's first private daily newspaper since the 1960s (not counting the state party organ Al-Baath), but its editorial line and reporting is practically identical to that of the public-owned papers.^[2] In fact, the owner of the daily is the cousin of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Rami Makhlouf.^[3] Its sister daily is Al Iqtissadiya.^[5]

The online edition of the paper was the 33rd most visited website for 2010 in the MENA region.^[6]

After the fall of the Assad regime in 2024, the newspaper published a statement from its editor-in-chief Waddah Abd Rabbo saying that it was "only carrying out instructions and publishing the news (the government) sent us".^[7]