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| Pic from Pixabay |
By Anis Albasha
Mark
Twain once said that “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If
you read the newspaper, you're misinformed”. This saying is perfectly
applicable when it comes to the pattern that is used by many western news media
when covering the volatile events in the Middle East.
Few
days ago, western news media, and also some regional media outlets, were so
concerned with what was going on in Syria, particularly in Ghouta area. All of
a sudden, news media started wailing and weeping about the ‘outrageous’ killing
and destruction committed by the Syrian Army in Ghouta. Headlines in many
western newspapers and magazines were very heartrending, such as ‘It is not a
war. It is a massacre’ or ‘It’s raining rockets’!
Anyone
follows the media coverage of Ghouta’s events would feel that they are talking
about an apocalypse which is about to happen. For many days, Ghouta news has
become the top news bulletins and headlines in the written and visual media. The
question here is: is what really happened in Ghouta worth all this wailing? Of
course, a terrible war is going on not only in Ghouta but in many parts of
Syria. But what is the reason behind the
news media hysterical coverage of what was going on Ghouta, particularly in
this timing? Do the media give us a true picture of what is going on there? Or there
are certain agendas some players are trying to pass through this over-coverage
of the Ghouta’s events? Posing these kinds of questions sounds very reasonable for
the following reasons:
1- At
a time when the media were wailing about the ‘horrible genocide’ against the
people and the children in Ghouta, we have not heard or seen a quarter of this
interest and sympathy about what is going on in Yemen. The country witnesses a
vicious and a cruel war waged by dozens of neighboring countries with the
support of superpower countries. This ongoing war against Yemen has claimed the
lives of thousands of innocent civilians including children. According to the
UNICEF, ‘Nearly all children in Yemen are in desperate need of humanitarian
assistance. More than 5,000 children have been killed or injured in the
violence – an average of five children every day since the conflict began’. So,
for those who feel devastated about the children of Ghouta, why don’t they feel
the same about the children of Yemen?
2- According
to dozens of reports from international entities and organizations, Yemen’s war
is one of the worst disasters in the world since the WW2. Reports state that Yemen
is currently facing one of the worst hunger crises in the world. Stephen
O’Brien, the UN under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, stated that
the largest humanitarian crisis was in Yemen where two-thirds of the population
— 18.8 million people — need aid and more than seven million people are hungry
and did not know where their next meal would come from. However, the same media that cries over Syria and
Ghouta did not shed a single tear on what is happening in Yemen!
Some
may argue that the Syrian regime is accused of killing children by using banned
chemical weapons. This is something unacceptable by the ‘modern’ world and it
was the reason behind that ‘feverish’ media coverage of Ghouta’s events. In
fact, it is so strange that, before any biased investigations take place, and
in the absence of any physical evidence, western news media insists that the culprit
is the Syrian regime. I can’t help but wondering, is the Syrian regime so stupid
to decide to use banned chemical weapons at the time when the Syrian army was
winning the fight against the main opposition group in Ghouta? Let alone the fabricated
footage that was broadcast from inside Ghouta after the alleged attack. We saw children
who were said to have been subjected to chemical weapons being sprayed with
water by ‘paramedics’ who did not wear the minimum protective clothing which
are crucial in such situations!
However,
let’s believe the news media this time. Let’s pretend that, all of a sudden, the
mainstream media is so sympathetic about the atrocities committed against
innocent civilians in Ghouta. If that is the case, why don’t we e see similar
reaction towards what is going on in Yemen? According to many accredited reports,
Saudi-led coalition used banned cluster bombs in Yemen. Human Rights Watch has
accused the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen of using indiscriminate cluster bombs
supplied by the United States. Human Rights Watch said it has evidence of
the bombs being used at least five times, including an attack in that injured
civilians. According to the Guardian, the British defense secretary Michael Fallon has seen government
analysis indicating that UK-made cluster munitions were used by the Saudi-led
coalition in the current conflict in Yemen.
So, if it is about using internationally banned
weapons, why don’t we see the same media coverage when it comes to Yemen? For many
days, Western news media was so busy with the ‘horrific’ scenes of the children
of Ghouta, whom the media accuses the Syrian regime of killing them by bombs as
well as by banned weapons. Why don’t we see a similar coverage about the
children of Yemen who were also killed by banned weapons? Does news media need accredited
reports about the outrageous situation in Yemen? According to the Save the
Children, “More than 50,000 children in Yemen are expected to die by the end of
the year as a result of disease and starvation caused by the stalemated war in
the country, Save the Children has warned.” So, are not these miserable
children in Yemen worth a little attention by the western media?
Do mainstream media need more accredited reports about Yemen? Well,
according to the UNICEF “Nearly 2 million Yemeni children were out of school, a
quarter of them since the conflict escalated when a Saudi-led coalition
intervened in March 2015. More than 3 million children were born into the war,
it said, adding they had been “scarred by years of violence, displacement,
disease, poverty, undernutrition and a lack of access to basic services”. Based
on that, it is so obvious that the news media coverage on Ghouta is not out of
compassion and humanity. Otherwise, we would have seen the same concern when it
comes to Yemen. This brings us back to the basic question: what exactly is
happening in Syria and what are the reasons behind the recent exaggerated media
interest of the events of Ghouta?
Actually, what is going on in Syria, whether in
Ghouta or in the other areas of the country is a conflict of interests between different
forces in order to achieve certain agendas. The people’s suffering because of
these conflicts is exploited by the news media to achieve certain goals which
are far from human sympathy with those people. If the news media deals with the
events in the Middle East as credibly as it claims and if it really cares about
the suffering of the innocents, they must stop this partial coverage which
cries over certain alleged claims in Syria while completely ignoring the real
tragedies that take place in other areas of the region like Yemen.
It is said that not only are things
not what they seem, they are not even what they are called. In the digital media age in which we live, I
may add that things are not also what they are ‘broadcast’. The events of
Ghouta are an example which proves that the greatest wisdom when dealing with
the news media is to see through appearances.
