Hawar News Agency
Hawar News Agency (sometimes abbreviated ANHA) (Kurdish: Ajansa Nûçeyên a Hawar; Arabic: وكالة أنباء هاوار) is a news agency.[1][2] The site started as an Arabic-only news service.[3] Hawar News is linked to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES)[4] and its armed forces the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).[5] Ownership, identity and reliabilityThe ownership of the Hawar News Agency is unpublished. The website's domain name was first registered in August 2012.[6] The site's About page says just "ANHA".[7] Pro-Syrian opposition source Verify-sy claims Hawar News is affiliated with the Democratic Union Party (PYD).[8] Attacks on staffA number of its journalists have been killed in the Syrian civil war. In 2022, Issam Abdullah and others, including Stêrk TV worker Mohammed Jarada, were allegedly targeted during Turkish airstrikes in northern Syria. Abdullah was killed and Jarada injured.[4][9] The Committee to Protect Journalists called for Turkish authorities to immediately investigate the events.[10] Cihan Belkin and Nazim Dashtan were killed by airstrike, for which Turkey is alleged to be responsible, in December 2024 whilst working as freelancers for ANHA.[11][12] Blocking and interferenceThe site has been repeatedly hacked in 2018[13], 2019[14], and 2022.[15][16] The Turkish telecommunications regulator blocked access to several news agencies in July 2015.[17] The block followed the end of the Kurdish Turkish peace process[17] and was described as a counter-terrorism action. Other Kurdish language or left-wing news sites based within and outside Turkey that were banned at the same time as Hawar News included Rudaw, Dicle News Agency, and Özgür Gündem.[17] References
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