Above: demonstrators yesterday in Kafranbel, Syria, showing solidarity with the Al-Jazeera journalists imprisoned in Egypt. Via @kafrev.
At the Free Word Centre’s blog, Malu Halasa writes on The news in Syria. Here’s an excerpt:
At the onset of the uprising in spring 2011, the news wasn’t so much how a story was covered but by whom. Once the major Arabic-language news-networks Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya were expelled from the country and international journalists were banned from going inside, news from Syria relied on a legion of citizen journalists. These mainly young Syrians, some with information-gathering experience, many with none, were responsible for posting literally thousands of written reports on the Internet and more than 300,000 videos on YouTube.
Their considerable numbers could be seen as defiance of and resistance to government propaganda, which blamed the killings and massacres on ‘terrorists’. In the beginning, the mobile phones and the digital cameras at the disposal of citizen journalists weren’t broadcast quality. So the Local Coordinating Committees (LCC), a network of nonviolent activists across Syria, started giving people access to better equipment and training.
[…]
Verifying the news was not the only impetus behind the stories by citizen journalists. They were also documenting human rights abuses and continue to do so today for evidence to be used in Syrian war crime trials – if and when these ever take place. However, according to Alachi, citizen journalists became increasingly disenchanted with the direction of the revolution whether armed or jihadi. After the chemical attacks on East Ghouta in August 2013 when no international action was taken, they felt the world was deaf to their stories. As a result, their numbers sadly dropped.
Interestingly, inside the country, a home-grown alternative media scene has developed. New Internet radio and four (basic) opposition television satellite channels have been established. But for those in rebel-held areas, continual power outages and the high costs of obtaining and running electricity generators make the printed word a reliable source of news dissemination. Even districts under siege have been publishing at the last count 57 weekly or bi-monthly A4 printed newspapers and pamphlets covering local and opposition news and revolutionary culture.
Within the LCC, there has been some discussion whether the shape the news takes has added to the obfuscation for Western audiences. In the past, the LCC, which publishes its own bi-monthly newspaper, operated a Reuters-type constant news-feed wire service. It is now planning to move into reporting stories on civil disobedience not just against the regime but any group attempting to take control.
Read the rest.
The Local Coordinating Committees are on Twitter as @LccSy, and on Facebook here.
