A Facebook page with 25,000 followers is pushing for demonstrations against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syrian cities and in several Western nations, including the US, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Australia. Organizers, who describe themselves as human rights advocates unaffiliated with any political party, say a date will be announced within days.
Assad has held power since 2000, winning a second seven-year term in a 2007 single-candidate referendum. Syria ranked 173rd out of 178 nations in Reporters Without Borders' 2010 press freedom index, a drop of eight places from the prior year. Separately, a 19-year-old Syrian blogger, Tal al-Mallouhi, recently received a five-year prison sentence on CIA-cooperation charges the US State Department called baseless.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in February 2011, in its own words.