What is happening in Ghouta?

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.