Activists Criticize Satellite Channels’ Coverage

Sadiq’s face betrays no emotion as he watches the footage of bodies being played on the satellite channel Al-Arabiya.

He is silent at first, and when he does speak he repeats the same thing he always tells his friends with whom he goes out to film protests, funeral processions and the devastation left by the shelling of southern Damascus.

“If it weren’t for Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, our revolution would not have continued; all the activists would have been a part of the past, either in their graves, in custody or outside Syria,” Sadiq says.

In the absence of opinion polls in Syria, journalists are forced to rely on chance street interviews, asking as many people as possible about a certain issue or question. Based on this somewhat haphazard method, it appears that many Syrians agree with Sadiq that the media played an important role in building momentum for the Syrian Revolution, and that Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya in particular were able to attract a large Syrian audience.

But there are others who support the revolution and do not believe these two networks have helped the Syrian revolution the way they helped other revolutions, such as the Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan revolutions, and that they were late in covering the Syrian revolution.

Zuhair al-Omar, who works in the media office of the Local Coordination Committee of Darayya, remembers in the beginning of the uprising when Al-Jazeera was more circumspect in its reporting on Syria.

“As the regime grew more brutal and it started committing massacres, the news networks played a big role in fuelling popular anger and pushing the street towards armed struggle,” says Omar. “They did this by hosting guests who called for the militarisation of the revolution, which is what the regime wanted from the beginning in order to justify its own narrative about armed gangs.”

Omar sees Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya’s tendency to focus on and even exaggerate the military operations to the exclusion of the peaceful side of the revolution has led many Syrians to start following other channels such as France 24 and the London-based Sky News, which present a more realistic picture, according to many media activists.

Sahar, a graduate of the media studies department of the University of Damascus, sharply criticizes channels like Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera for “Islamicising” the revolution, so that it appears to be a Salafi revolution while the role of minorities is overlooked.

“The most important thing our revolution has demonstrated is the feeling of unity among Syrians in regards to a single demand, but the Gulf oil media has inflated the number of Islamists and focuses on their slogans while purposefully ignoring other revolutionary forces as well as secular and civil activists,” says Sahar, who helps out in one of the coordination committee’s media centres in the countryside oustside Hama.

But Akram, an activist who films protests in the city of Idlib, disagrees. He says the Free Syrian Army, FSA, now dominates on the ground, while peaceful protests play a very minor role. Is it to be expected, he says, that the media should focus on those actors who have the most influence, which is why the news networks cover the FSA’s military operations and the regime’s massacres against civilians.

“It is true and obvious that the Sunnis in Syria are bearing the brunt of the revolution, and the Sunnis, who are the majority in Syria, are subjected to the worst forms of oppression, murder and torture,” he says.

In Akram’s view, it is only natural that the Sunnis should raise religious slogans to unite them in the face of a murderous regime, and that the names of the fighting units should reflect this Islamist identity.

From the Kurdish perspective, assessing the performance of the satellite news channels must be done with an eye to their coverage of the Kurds role in the revolution. Kurdish activists, who represent a significant swath of Kurds, accuse most of the major Arabic channels of unfair coverage.

With the exception of coverage of the protests in Qamishli, Amouda and Ras Al-Ain early on, for example, the Kurdish role in the revolution has been largely ignored, especially by Al-Jazeera.

This policy of exclusion was adopted following disagreements between Kurdish and Arab activists at opposition conferences. Kurdish activists accuse Arab media outlets, especially Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, of trying to erase the Kurdish contribution under the pretext that the Kurdish areas have fallen under the control of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and that revolutionary spirit has left those areas, never to return.

“There is a tacit alliance between the powers that are trying to force agendas on the Syrian revolution, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, and part of this is the marginalisation of the Kurds, despite the fact that they were active in the revolution from the very beginning,” says Arass, who administrates a Kurdish pro-revolution Facebook page.

But Mohammad, another Kurdish activist, thinks collusion between the media and those who had differed with the Kurds over their rights and issues related to national identity unlikely.

“It will take time for the media to treat the Kurdish cause fairly, and the exclusion of the Kurds from media coverage, either intentionally or not, is not a big deal,” he says, adding that the regime did not allow the various communities within Syria to coexist and so raising awareness about Kurdish rights requires time and a democratic environment.

Are the satellite channels with the revolution, or against it? The answer to this question often depends on the opinion of viewers and their preference for a particular channel over another. For many, accuracy and objectivity in the news are not a primary concern.

Hala Droubi, the Dubai-based Syrian journalist who writes for the Arabic and international press, has touched on this issue, pointing out the difficulty of covering news from Syria and knowing what is happening on the ground on a daily basis due to the state’s refusal to allow most journalists to enter the country.

But despite these obstacles, Droubi insists media outlets must maintain a standard of professionalism in their work. She also writes that the popularity enjoyed by some channels does not necessarily translate into credibility or thoroughness in fact-checking.

“I remember when I first started covering the revolution, some of the activists asked me not to publish things that would damage the image of the revolution, or to alter some of the facts to make the regime appear more brutal,” she says. “Of course I refused and told them ‘this does not help your cause or your revolution’.”

“It is not the aim of the journalist to promote the revolution or the regime; it is not our purpose to serve any party,” she continues. “The first and last purpose is to serve the truth, and in doing so we serve the right and the righteous.”