Baynana

Okpa, Moussa, Muhammad, and Ayham are four Syrian journalists who left their country in 2018 with the help of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a US-based non-profit organisation promoting press freedom and supporting journalists. Once in Spain, they realised there was very little practical information in Arabic for newly arrived migrants and decided to launch a media outlet, its coordinator Moussa al Jamaat said.

Baynana (in English: Among us), in the broadest sense of the word, means: "We are all of us; there is no other or them."Its name reflects the spirit of the publication, which seeks to build bridges between migrants and refugees and Spanish society," al Jamaat said.

Its mission is to publish useful information to the Arabic-speaking community in Spain, to show different points of view about the reality of migrants, and to combat existing stereotypes about the Arab world in Spanish society. "We want to be the voice of refugees and migrants in Spain," Moussa explained. "But not as victims; rather, as people capable of transforming and contributing to society."

Baynana was born with the support of Fundación Por Causa, a Spanish non-profit organisation that brings together researchers and journalists, and which provides the outlet with office space and administrative support. "We started from scratch; we had nothing," Moussa recalled. The team received 20,000 euros from the CPJ, 36,000 euros from a crowdfunding campaign, two grants from Google and Meta, and the contributions of around 120 founding paid members to launch the project.

The editorial staff comprises four founders working part-time (as they cannot live off the publication's revenues) and 10 volunteers. "Our sustainability is uncertain," Moussa said.

By the end of 2023, the organisation aims to launch a podcast and publish information in English. In the future, the team would like to launch Baynana in countries like Germany or France.