Syrian regime faking news to the world

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Jan 7, 2013

After a massacre in the Syrian town of Houla in May, news sites scrambled to find photos to run with their stories. Marco di Lauro, a photographer for Getty, was shocked to find his 2003 image, taken in Iraq, posted under the headline, “Syria massacre in Houla condemned as outrage grows.” A Syrian activist had circulated the photo. And the BBC ran with it.

(Global Post) – Don’t get fooled again. Here are the most popular dubious videos and images being passed around by the Assad regime and the opposition

Videos posted to the internet have played a key propaganda role in Syria’s bloody civil war. The footage typically shows brutal attacks, beatings and mass executions. Many clips show rows of dead women and children.

But are these videos reliable?

Last month, a fighter in Aleppo handed a reporter his cell phone, shaking his head in disbelief. “Assad, Assad,” he said.

On the screen was a video of someone beheading a prisoner with a chainsaw. It had been circulating in Syria for at least a year. The footage itself is very real, but it is five years old, and was shot in Mexico. Drug lords carried out the crime. The video has been used by rebels in conflicts all over the world.

The sham videos can have very real effects, creating sympathy for one side or the other. Last week, the United Nations accused the rebels of war crimes, based on a YouTube video of fighters executing prisoners. This type of atrocity makes intervention less appealing to the West.

While that video appears to have been real, many other bogus ones have found their way onto major television networks in the United States and beyond, and are spread widely by social media. It’s not uncommon for the two sides to use the same footage to make opposite claims.

Here is a look at some of the most widely seen — fake or misrepresented — footage and images being used by both sides of the Syrian conflict.