Implications for Australia of Aljazeera Program Condoning Genocide in Syria
ASIA--PACIFIC, 25 May 2015
Susan Dirgham – TRANSCEND Media Service
20 May 2015
Dear Mr Turnball, Australia’s Communications Minister,
I urge you to give attention to a short segment on a program on Al-Jazeera that was broadcast early this month.
The program targeted an Arabic speaking audience, and it would have a significant number of viewers in Australia. The host of the Al-Jazeera program and one guest express support for the killing of Alawis in Syria. They do not exclude women and children.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULtNYSUqYHw
There is at least one petition being distributed protesting the calls on Al-Jazeera to incite genocide:
As well as encouraging you and other members of parliament to give serious attention to this call for genocide, it is critical that there is an examination of the presentation of the conflict in Syria by our public broadcasters. I have no doubt Al-Jazeera would be a reference for journalists, politicians, and even DFAT officials who have sought an understanding of the conflict in Syria. This is despite the fact that Al-Jazeera has been an active player in the conflict since the beginning, as I noted in a comment on an ABC webpage in April 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/syria/2953198
In the last four years, I have contacted the ABC on numerous occasions to alert journalists to the distortion and bias in reports on Syria and to warn them that such reporting will encourage some in the community to support jihad. My last formal complaint was in regards to the bias in a report on AM. Despite the weight of my arguments and the implications of a mainstream broadcaster showing bias towards militias intent on destroying the army of a secular society, it was not upheld. http://susandirgham.wordpress.com
Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria, much of the reporting and official
commentary on Syria has been framed in terms of ‘a brutal Alawi regime oppressing the Sunni majority’. As the guest who stood up against the calls for genocide on Al-Jazeera explains, this does not reflect the reality of the Syrian government, the army or the conflict.
I was heartened this week to see an article in the alternative magazine “New Matilda” which analyses and challenges mainstream reports on Syria. https://newmatilda.com/2015/05/17/corporate-media-and-syria-study-propaganda-and-sloppy-standards
There must be some serious examination of the media presentation of the conflict in Syria and how that impacts Australians who support ISIS or al-Nusra in Syria. It would seem appropriate that you initiate it.
Like Syria, Australia is a diverse and secular society. It too can suffer from hatreds and divisions stirred up by malevolent forces.
For example, there are tens of thousands of people with Alawi backgrounds in Australia who have come from Syria, Lebanon or Turkey. Unbeknownst to most of us, they may already be facing intimidation from sections of the community who are influenced by calls to hate, both direct or indirect, from a range of sources.
The conflict in the Middle East has been presented by other key commentators in sectarian terms. For example, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States has described the terrorist group ISIS as the ‘lesser evil’; in his mind ‘Shia’ are the greater evil. No doubt such views expressed by a prominent person have an impact on communities and reporting. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/israels-former-ambassador-to-the-us-on-the-palestinian-question/373627/
On the other hand, retired U.S. General Wesley Clark has claimed that ISIS was created by friends and allies of America in order to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHLqaSZPe98
What is the truth? At times it seems the world is edging towards an abyss and we are being taken there with our minds, our eyes and our mouths closed.
An esteemed professor at M.I.T., Professor Theodore Postol, and a former U.N. weapons inspector, Mr Richard Lloyd, published a paper which contended that the Syrian army could not have fired the weapons that purportedly carried sarin and killed over 300 people in Damascus in August 2013. Unsubstantiated claims that the Syrian government was responsible for this ‘massacre’ and others have contributed to many people’s bafflement regarding the war and to their disengagement in regards to supporting peace or the war’s victims. On the other hand, the claims have led to the active engagement of others on the side of the terror. The implications of Postol and Lloyd’s findings are extremely significant, yet our public or corporate media eschews them. Here is a link to the Theodore Postol and Richard Lloyd report: http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1006045-possible-implications-of-bad-intelligence.html
To unite Australians and to fear the future less, it is vital that we espouse and live values that reflect our common humanity and which can inspire us all. Organisations cannot display courage; individuals must.
In the past four years, many brave people in Syria have been committed to the work of reconciliation. If Syria is not to become a failed state and its people destitute and brutalised for decades to come, these efforts must be acknowledged and supported. “The Babbila Reconciliation: a Light at the End of Syria’s Dark Tunnel” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSS-AhrqGps
As Communications Minister and as someone committed to reconciliation, you are in an excellent position to take a lead. I urge you to give attention to the call for genocide on the Al-Jazeera program and also to how the mainstream media coverage of Syria frames the conflict in a way which can indirectly promote support for jihadi terror.
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Susan Dirgham, National Coordinator of “Australians for Reconciliation in Syria” (AMRIS)
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 25 May 2015.
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