Baynana, the first media outlet created by Syrian refugee journalists in Spain

Launched in 2021 by four Syrian journalist friends who landed in Spain in 2019 after escaping the war in Syria, Baynana is the first media outlet designed and managed by refugees in Spain. With the title meaning “Between us” in Arabic, this online news magazine aims to create a space of representation for the voices of immigrants, refugees, and the Arabic community of Spain. 

“My career as a Syrian journalist and my experience as a refugee led me to identify a lack of representation,” said Moussa Al Jamaat, one of the founders. “With Baynana, we wanted to not only tell our own stories but also be a bridge for people to learn more about our reality from our perspectives, far from stereotypes and misinformation.”

Like the other founders of Baynana – Ayham al-Ghareeb, Okba Mohamed and Muhammad Subat – Moussa Al Jamaat covered the civil war in Syria for local news agencies before escaping to Madrid in 2019, with the help of the press freedom watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Through interviews, reports, opinion pieces, and videos, both in Spanish and Arabic, the outlet wants to show the good face of migrants in Spain.

We want to be a reference that shows that immigrants and refugees are not just numbers or stories of suffering, but also agents of change, with complex and valuable stories to contribute to society

explained Al Jamaat

“We also seek to offer inclusive, ethical, and diverse journalism, with content that fosters empathy, integration, and social justice.”

The articles are numerous and varied on the platform. For example, there is an article on the story of migrants who, thanks to regularisation, were able to open a business in Spain and began to create jobs in their host country. Or a report on the Arabic aroma in the most typical and emblematic dishes of Spanish cuisine. Recent developments in Syria, with the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, have also been covered.

The outlet also offers information in Arabic for migrants, such as how to get residency papers, addressing a problem of accessibility the founders themselves faced.  

Battling under-representation and far-right narratives

Baynana wants to give a voice to those who don’t have one by building bridges between communities. “Unfortunately, representation remains problematic. Immigrants and refugees are often treated as the other or are limited to being protagonists of negative news: migration crisis, conflicts, crimes,” said Al Jamaat. 

The outlet seeks to break stereotypes and racism against migrants and refugees often experienced through. “There is a lack of context and humanity in how our stories are told. This contributes to perpetuating prejudices and reinforcing xenophobic discourses. That is why Baynana is crucial: we seek to break with these narratives and present a more realistic, diverse, and positive vision,” said Al Jamaat.

A focus has been on successful migrant stories, like a YouTuber with Moroccan roots who fights Islamophobia or the famous Sevilla football striker Youssef en-Nesyri. Across years, numerous studies have shown that the voices of refugees and migrants have been very under-represented in the mainstream media. These communities are often rendered invisible or misinterpreted in traditional media. Baynana is a way of changing this narrative about immigration and refugees in Spain, but also across Europe. 

This mission becomes even more important for them as many European countries close their borders and tighten their migration policies – all this in a context where far-right parties are on the rise in several EU countries, just like speeches that dehumanise migrants and refugees. “In times like these… Baynana becomes a tool of resistance, a loudspeaker that shows the human realities behind statistics and stigmas,” said Al Jamaat.

The challenge of viability

Despite all their goodwill and support, challenges remain for this online media in a media industry already in crisis. One of the biggest ones is the economic sustainability of the project, even if a few crowdfunding campaigns have been launched. The last crowdfunding operation was able to raise more than 27,000 euros in 2023.

“This issue is very difficult and complicated,” said Al Jamaat. “We are in a bad economic situation at the moment, so for a year or more, the entire team [of four founders and 12 volunteers] has been working voluntarily and without any compensation, and for this reason, the production of reports has decreased a lot.” For the year 2024, we find approximately one article per month.

The outlet is trying to diversify and appeal to a broader and more diverse audience, as more than 1.5 million of Arabs live within Spain. Despite everything, visibility is also another key challenge for the young media’s survival. “Fighting against the big dominant narratives and finding a space in a saturated media landscape is not easy, all the more when some people don’t want to hear voices other than the usual ones,” concluded Al Jamaat.

Source of the cover photo: Kanhaiya Sharma via Unsplash

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