Lina Chawaf

Lina Chawaf (born 1970 (age 43)) is a Syrian journalist. She studied fine arts at Damascus University. She began working as a TV director's assistant and then became a director involved in the production of commercials. She has been a journalist since 1992.

She founded the Arabesque Mussika FM radio station in Syria and managed it for seven years. In 2011, the Syrian government required that radio stations broadcast pro-government messaging in response to the Arab Spring. Chawaf and her children were threatened by authorities after refusing, so she went into self-imposed exile. She traveled to Montreal where she lived for nearly two years before settling in Paris.

Chawaf founded Radio Rozana to broadcast citizen journalism into Syria, with the first broadcast taking place on 26 June 2013, initially staffed with 30 reporters on the ground in Syria and five based in Paris. She operates out of an apartment in an undisclosed location in Paris to avoid reprisal from the Syrian government. As of 2015, she was returning to Syria every two months.

In 2018, she was awarded the Press Freedom Award by Reporters Without Borders. She is the director of the European Media Collective Forum "CMFE." She has also written articles for newspapers and magazines in Syria (Baladna, Shabablek, and Sabaya) and in Canada (Almoustakbal)