ISTANBUL — The producer counts down — “three, two, one” — as the music swells, and a new episode of the current affairs television show “Syria Today” goes live, broadcasting pro-opposition programming to Syrians scattered across the world by civil war.

Similar scenes of dissent play out daily all over Istanbul, where firebrands from Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere across the Arab world take on the Mideast’s oppressive governments from the relative safety of Turkey’s media capital.

As the Arab Spring uprisings have been trampled underfoot by resurgent dictators or devolved into brutal civil wars, Istanbul has emerged as the region’s capital for many of the Arab politicians, activists, rebels and journalists who tried to push history in a different direction in the countries where they were born — and stalled.

In Istanbul, they are carving out new lives, carrying on the fight from afar and avoiding jail terms, or worse, back home.