Syrian media coverage of the Syrian Civil War
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Since the start of the Syrian Civil War, all sides have used social media to try to discredit their opponents by using negative terms such as 'Syrian regime' for the government, 'armed gangs/terrorists' for the rebels, 'Syrian government/US State Department propaganda', 'biased', 'US/Western/foreign involvement'. According to the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an international institute based in Stockholm. It was founded in 1966 and provides data, analysis and recommendations for armed conflict, military expenditure and arms trade as well a ...
, given the complexity of the Syrian conflict, media bias in reporting remains a key challenge, plaguing the collection of useful data and misinforming researchers and policymakers regarding the actual events taking place.


Internet activists


Social media

As in the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the Internet played a major role in the organization and coverage of the protests/armed-uprising. As of 2011 the largest Facebook page in support of the Syrian uprising was "The Syrian Revolution 2011", which claimed more than 383,000 followers. The page, co-founded by
Fida al-Sayed Fidaaldin Al-Sayed Issa ( ar , فداء الدين السيد عيسى), born January 15, 1985, is a Syrian political activist who lives in Eskilstuna, Sweden. Fida is the chairman of the ''Youth Coalition of March 15'' and former spokesperson f ...
, reports on news related to the uprising and provides general guidelines for protests. As of 2020, it had more than 6.5 million followers. As of 2015 the largest Facebook page in support of the Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad has more than 2,958,595 followers. * Bana Alabed, a 2016 Twitter account of unclear provenance about a child purportedly tweeting in English from Aleppo as the city was being destroyed. * Maram Susli, a Pro Assad "activist" who claims the Syrian President is a victim of a "Zionist conspiracy" *Many Pro Assad activists assert that the Syrian President is a target of a
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
"regime change operation". This is despite the fact that the Syrian government used to outsource torture to the CIA


Mobiles

Since international news media was banned in Syria, the main source of second-hand information/dis-information was private videos usually taken by shaky mobile phone cameras and uploaded to YouTube. Such videos were difficult to verify independently, and several TV stations showed older footage from Iraq and Lebanon, which was claimed to have been filmed in Syria. Twitter accounts have also been used to spread news and opinions about the conflict, using pictures from mobile phones. For example, pro Assad Rana Harbi from Lebanon is one of the most popular persons using tweets to inform about the conflict development (using pictures from mobile phones).


Visual media

Between January 2012 and September 2013, over a million videos documenting the war have been uploaded, and they have received hundreds of millions of views. '' The Wall Street Journal'' states that the "unprecedented confluence of two technologies—cellphone cams and social media—has produced, via the instant upload, a new phenomenon: the YouTube war." '' The New York Times'' states that online videos have "allowed a widening war to be documented like no other." Prominent videos include the rebel commander Abu Sakkar cutting organs from the dead body of a Syrian soldier and putting one of them in his mouth, "as if he is taking a bite out of it". He called rebels to follow his example and terrorize the
Alawite The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isl ...
sect, which mostly backs Assad.


Propaganda

Since the start of the war, all sides have used the media to try to discredit their opponents and show them in their worst possible light. On the other hand, not all situations have been shown in the worst possible light. Syria is ranked the third most repressive country in the world in terms of press freedom by the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the 4th most repressive by
Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...
. Propaganda has been used by the Syrian government since the beginning of the conflict. The
Syrian Arab News Agency The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) ( ar, الوكالة العربية السورية للأنباء (سانا), ) is a Syrian state-controlled news agency, linked to the country's ministry of information. It was established in June 1965. We ...
(SANA), the official government news agency, often refers to the FSA and ISIS as "armed gangs" or "terrorists"—while other media sources such as TRTWorld and
Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
maintain that only part of the opposition are 'extremists'. President Assad has characterized the opposition as armed terrorist groups with Islamist ''" takfiri"'' extremist motives, portraying himself as the last guarantee for a secular government form. Former employees have said that
Syrian Arab News Agency The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) ( ar, الوكالة العربية السورية للأنباء (سانا), ) is a Syrian state-controlled news agency, linked to the country's ministry of information. It was established in June 1965. We ...
(SANA)'s role was to "fabricate, make deceptions and cover up for Bashar al-Assad's crimes" and that television interviews sometimes use government supporters 'disguised as locals' who stand near sites of destruction and claim that they were caused by rebel fighters.
Al-Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
has also been accused of biased coverage. The Lebanese newspaper ''
As-Safir ''As-Safir'' ( ar, السفير, lit=The Ambassador), was a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper in Lebanon. The headquarters of the daily was in Beirut. It was in circulation from March 1974 until December 2016. The last issue of the paper wa ...
'' cited outtakes of interviews showing that the channel's staff coached Syrian eyewitnesses and fabricated reports of oppression by Syria's government. It refers to leaked internal e-mails suggest that
Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
has become subordinated to the Qatari emir's assertive foreign policy, which supports Syria's rebels and advocates military intervention in the country. In March 2012, Al Jazeera correspondents
Ali Hashim ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
and two others resigned from their jobs because of objections over the reporting on the conflict. They reported that Al Jazeera paid $50,000 for smuggling phones and satellite communication tools to Syria's rebels. Hashim concluded, "The channel was taking a certain stance. It was meddling with each and every detail of reports on the Syrian revolution." Ahmad Ibrahim, who is in charge of the Al Jazeera's coverage on Syria, is the brother of a leading member of the opposition
Syrian National Council The Syrian National Council (SNC; ar, المجلس الوطني السوري, ''al- Majlis al-Waṭanī as-Sūri'', french: Conseil national syrien), sometimes known as the Syrian National Transitional Council or the National Council of Syri ...
. Al Jazeera reportedly put pressure on its journalists to use the term "martyr" for slain Syrian rebels, but not pro-government forces. In January 2013, a former news editor at Al Jazeera, who was from Syria, and had been at Al Jazeera for "nearly a decade" was fired without cause given, but in an interview stated their belief that it was linked to his/her resistance of ongoing strong pressure to conform to biased coverage of the Syrian civil war. The former editor stated that the Muslim Brotherhood was "controlling the Syrian file at Al-Jazeera" with both organizations biasing news coverage in favour of the Brotherhood ousting the Syrian government of Assad by force and warning the then-editor "the majority
n Syria N, or n, is the fourteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet# ...
is with the Muslim Brotherhood and aking poweris within our grasp" so "thank your god if you get a pardon when we become the government." The source named the names of several other former employees who resigned in protest, including director of the Berlin bureau Aktham Sleiman, a Syrian, "who was, at the beginning, with the yrianopposition" but resisted what the interviewee terms the "lies and despicable olitical and ethnicsectarianism" and concluded that "Al-Jazeera has lied and is still lying" about Syria and in favour of armed overthrow and of the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2016, it was revealed through
emails of Hillary Clinton During her tenure as United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton drew controversy by using a private email server for official public communications rather than using official State Department email accounts maintained on federal serve ...
that Google and Al-Jazeera planned to encourage defections from the Syrian government, through various internet tools that disseminate information.


Hoaxes

Both sides have been distributing on social media videos and photos of violence, while falsely claiming that the atrocities had been committed by the opposition: later it turned out to be footage from conflicts in other countries. Examples: *
A Gay Girl In Damascus ''A Gay Girl In Damascus'' was a weblog purportedly by Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari who was in fact a fictional character and hoax persona created and maintained by American Tom MacMaster. The identity was presented as a Syrian-American blogge ...
, a 2011 blog written by an American posing as a gay girl in Damascus. *"Syrian Hero Boy", a 2015 viral video showing a Syrian boy rescuing a girl under gunfire, watched online by millions of viewers, was faked by a Norwegian film crew, according to its director. Posted on YouTube, the "''Syrian Hero Boy''" video was shot on location in Malta in the summer of 2014 with professional actors, directed by 34-year-old Norwegian
Lars Klevberg Lars is a common male name in Scandinavian countries. Origin ''Lars'' means "from the city of Laurentum". Lars is derived from the Latin name Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum" or "crowned with laurel". A homonymous Etruscan name was bo ...
, who hoped to provoke debates about media distortion and context children in war zones. *In 2011, the 18-year-old
Zainab Alhusni Zainab may refer to: * Zainab (given name), an Arabic female given name * Zainab (surname) Zainab is an Arabic surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Ali ibn Zainab, seventh century sahaba of Muhammad * Tengku Zainab (1917–1993), ...
was claimed to have been taken in Syrian custody and later killed and mutilated, due to her brother being an activist. Her family held a funeral, but she later turned out to be alive, and had run away from home because her brothers beat her.


Attacks on journalists

It has been maintained that, by October 2012, 'more than hundred professional or citizen journalists' had reportedly been killed in the Syrian Civil War. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 13 journalists were killed in work-related incidents during the first eighteen months of the uprising. During the same period,
Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...
said a total of 33 journalists were killed. '' The Sunday Times'' contributor Marie Colvin was killed by an explosion during the battle of Homs, but at least one, French journalist
Gilles Jacquier Gilles Jacquier (25 October 1968 – 11 January 2012) was a French photojournalist and reporter for France Télévisions. Jacquier worked as a special correspondent for ''Envoyé spécial'', one of France's best known documentary programs whi ...
, was killed by rebel mortar fire. Except for those selected by the Syrian government, journalists have been banned from reporting in Syria. Those who have entered the country regardless have been targeted. Within a month of the protests taking off, at least seven local and international journalists were detained, and at least one of them was beaten. 'Citizen journalist' Mohammed Abdelmawla al-Hariri was arrested in April 2012, tortured in prison, and sentenced to death in May 2012 for giving an interview for Al Jazeera. Jordanian Salameh Kaileh was tortured and detained in deplorable conditions before being deported.


NBC News team kidnapping

On 13 December 2012, NBC News reporter Richard Engel and his five crew members, Aziz Akyavaş, Ghazi Balkiz, John Kooistra, Ian Rivers and Ammar Cheikh Omar, were abducted in Syria. Having escaped after five days in captivity, Engel said he believed that a Shabiha group loyal to al-Assad was behind the abduction, and that the crew was freed by the
Ahrar ash-Sham Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya ( ar-at, حركة أحرار الشام الإسلامية, Ḥarakat Aḥrāru š-Šām al-Islāmiyah, lit=Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant), commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition ...
group five days later. Engel's account was however challenged from early on. In April 2015, NBC had to revise the kidnapping account, following further investigations by ''The New York Times'', which suggested that the NBC team "was almost certainly taken by a Sunni criminal element affiliated with the
Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the governm ...
," rather than by a loyalist Shia group.


See also

*
Media of Syria The mass media in Syria consists primarily of television, radio, Internet, film and print. The national language of Syria is Arabic but some publications and broadcasts are also available in English and French. While television is the most popula ...


References


Further reading

*Joseph Dahe
Syria, the uprising and the media scene
''OpenDemocracy'' 26 October 2017 *James Miller and Matt Sienkiewic
Straight news from the citizens of Syria
''Columbia Journalism Review'' 16 August 2012 {{2011 Syrian uprising Syrian civil war Mass media in Syria War and the media Syrian Civil War