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Journalists Combat ISIS
October 17, 2018, 7:00 PM
Free
In the era of ISIS, a group young people started Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), a non-partisan, independent organization that exposes and fights the atrocities committed by the Bashar Al-Assad regime and ISIS in Syria in a peaceful way.
Abdalaziz Alhamza, an award-winning Syrian journalist, human rights defender, activist, IT trainer, and founder of RBSS started non-volatile protests and demonstrations against the Syrian regime in 2011 and was arrested by the regime three times in 2012. The Islamic State Group (ISIS) interrogated him more than one time about his activism. After ISIS took control of his hometown, Raqqa, in January 2014, he escaped to Turkey and started RBSS with his friends to show the reality of life in Raqqa and ISIS. In 2015, Alhamza received the International Press Freedom award by the Committee to Protect Journalists and was named a Global Thinker by Foreign Policy.
In 2016, he was awarded the Ischia International Journalism Award, the Civil Courage Prize, and other awards on behalf of RBSS. Alhamza was featured in City of Ghosts a documentary that followed the journey of Alhamza and his colleagues. Alhamza graduated with a degree in biochemistry from Raqqa University.