In the early morning of February 6, 2022, Syrian journalist Kenan Waqaf posted a video to his Facebook account saying that he had gone into hiding after heavily armed security forces arrived at his home in the western city of Tartus and tried to arrest him.

Waqaf, who said in the video that he worked for the state-owned newspaper Al-Wahda, had published a post on his Facebook page on February 4 criticizing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In his February 4 post, Waqaf criticized Assad for hosting artists at a reception while not responding to issues including long lines for those trying to access government services and protests and roadblocks in the southern Syrian city of Sweida.

On his Facebook page, where he has about 8,600 followers, Waqaf frequently posts reporting on corruption and the deterioration in living standards in government-controlled areas of the country.

The Syria-focused online news outlet Enab Baladi reported that Waqaf was previously arrested in September 2020 and March 2021 after sharing news on Facebook about government corruption and the kidnapping of a government official’s son.