Yara Bader is a Syrian journalist and human rights defender, co-leader of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression  founded in Damascus in 2004 alongside her husband Mazen Darwish, who has consistently advocated for press freedom and the documentation of human rights violations despite mounting risks from successive crackdowns. In February 2012 she was arrested during a raid on SCM offices by Air Force Intelligence, held in pre-trial detention before being conditionally released on 10 May 2012 to face charges of ‘possession of banned publications’, while her husband and several colleagues remained disappeared or imprisoned (she then continued to lead SCM’s mission, coordinating documentation of abuses, supporting journalists at risk, and campaigning internationally for detained media workers, including by accepting international awards for free expression on Darwish’s behalf). After being forced into exile in 2015 she settled in Berlin and continued her advocacy globally, receiving numerous honours such as the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism from Human Rights Watch in 2015, the Ilaria Alpi award for brave female journalists in 2012, and participating in ceremonies to accept UNESCO press freedom prizes, all while bringing attention to the fate of Syrian detainees and the importance of independent media even from abroad.