Mainstream Western media provide biased coverage of the situation in Syria's Idlib, resorting to propaganda tools and exploitation of children's images to mislead the public, Eva Bartlett, an independent Canadian journalist and activist specializing on Syria and Palestine, told Sputnik in an interview
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2019) Mainstream Western media provide biased coverage of the situation in Syria's Idlib, resorting to propaganda tools and exploitation of children's images to mislead the public, Eva Bartlett, an independent Canadian journalist and activist specializing on Syria and Palestine, told Sputnik in an interview.
"It is important to note that Western media, when they are covering [the situation in Idlib], they neglect to mention that Idlib is basically an al-Qaeda's [terrorist group, banned in Russia] stronghold. Even the former US special envoy, Brett McGurk, himself said that it is a stronghold of al-Qaeda. The media has a role and responsibility to report that, but what they are doing is basically whitewashing the existence of these terrorists in order to misinterpret the situation like Syrian and Russian governments are just randomly attacking civilians that is actually not the case," Bartlett said.
Bartlett pointed out that this way of covering the Syrian crisis made Western audiences think that Syria and Russia were committing war crimes in Syria, and that if the public was informed on the reality of the situation, a political solution to the conflict would be closer at hand.
"Western media were able to influence people in the West to thinking than Syrian and Russian governments are doing war crimes in Syria. I believe that if the public were informed, they would [put] pressure on political leaders, not only for the media to report honestly, but also to work with those, who want to reach political solution that are Syrian and Russian governments and allies," the journalist added.
According to Bartlett, the western corporate media have a similar agenda to that of the United States and its allies in Syria. Specifically, they use children to spread propaganda by exploiting their image, including on Twitter, the journalist said. She then cited the White Helmets, a rebel-linked group that has billed itself as a volunteer rescue force, saying that it always exploited kids for their videos because "children have more value for propaganda."
"The thing is that it [using children for spreading propaganda] is effective, it is effective because witness exploitation makes splashy media campaigns that are directed at Western public, and then Western audience sees that, and who can help if a child looks like he is injured? And on that note, I should add that one of the key groups that are guilty of exploiting children in Syria is White Helmets," Bartlett said.
Western media often report that Russia and Syria conduct deadly airstrikes in Idlib, the last terrorist stronghold. In particular, the two nations' military were accused of bombing residential areas in the northwestern city of Maarat al-Numan in late July. The Russian Foreign Ministry has refuted the accusations, providing conclusive proof based on drone imagery that civilian facilities in the city were fully operational.
