[FoME] Syria: media map, journalists' security, refugees' information gap, social media

[Christoph Dietz]

Syria media map
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), 2013, 32 p.
http://iw3.iwpr.net/sites/default/files/iwpr_syria_media_map.pdf 
This report addresses the state of the media in Syria; the laws that
regulate and restrict the media, and the attacks on the media and
journalists. The report also provides a Media Map, a list of print and
online publications, radio and TV stations in Syria. According to the
conclusion, "the international community and media development
organizations should provide funding and training courses for media
establishments in Syria that are committed to professional and objective
reporting and that promote diversity and tolerance in the country."
 
Journalism in Syria: impossible job?
Paris: Reporters Without Borders, 2013, 33 p.
http://de.scribd.com/doc/182004073/Journalism-in-Syria-impossible-job 
Syria is now the world’s most dangerous country for journalists.
According to a Reporters Without Borders tally, more than 110 news
providers have been killed in the course of their work in Syria since
March 2011 and more than 60 are currently detained, held hostage or
missing ... The report examines the growing perils of journalism in
Syria, analysing the evolution in the dangers and identifying the
origins of the threats and difficulties that Syrian and foreign news
provider have encountered during the 32 months of the conflict. (source:
website RWB)

Journalists' security in war zones: lessons from Syria
Beirut: Samir Kassir Foundation, 2013, 30 p.
http://www.skeyesmedia.org/extensions/pdf/Journalists%5C'_Security_in_Conflict_Zones-SKeyes%5B3%5D.pdf
Stories of journalists entering conflict zones without basic equipment
or first aid training are all too familiar; so too are reports of news
outlets washing their hands of responsibility regarding commissioned
freelancers. This needs to change, and it can, so long as enough voices
in the industry back initiatives to implement minimum working standards.
This was the objective of a retreat for international journalists who
have reported from Syria since conflict broke out in early 2011: to
produce a set of minimum professional and safety standards for
journalists reporting from conflict zones and their employers, drawing
on their experiences and challenges in the field. What follows is an
outline of a series of discussions held over the three-day retreat among
some 45 journalists, photographers and filmmakers, which led to the
production of a minimum standards document. Participants discussed their
greatest personal, security and professional challenges faced when
reporting from Syria, including experiences with kidnappings, news
blackouts, computer encryption, cultural sensitivity and post-traumatic
stress disorder. Their recommendations are outlined in the “Minimum
Working Standards for Journalists in Conflict Zones” (appendix 1) and
“Recommendations to Press Freedom Organisations” (appendix 2).
(source: executive summary)

Lost: Syrian refugees and the information gap
Internews, 2013, 16 p.
http://www.internews.org/sites/default/files/resources/Internews_Lost_SyriaReport_Nov2013_web.pdf

The report presents findings that pose both unique challenges and
opportunities for programs seeking to provide humanitarian information
to Syrian refugees in Lebanon. So far, according to the report, there is
little evidence of any comprehensive strategy or investment in providing
a humanitarian communication strategy. Various agencies are employing
piecemeal tactics to communication through counseling lines, SMS and
face-to-face outreach, yet all of these have their limitations.
Furthermore it is clear from Internews research presented here that all
current outreach tactics are fundamentally undermined by a profound lack
of trust and/or understanding on the part of the refugees about what
they are being told, and by whom. Syria has a long history as one of the
most media-oppressed countries in the world and the Syrians have a
mistrust of media and officialdom in general. (source: Internews
website)
 
Watching Syria's War
http://projects.nytimes.com/watching-syrias-war 
The New York Times is tracking the human toll of the conflict in this
feature. The primary source is the online video that has allowed a
widening war to be documented like no other, and posts try to put the
video into context. 

Social media reporting and the Syrian civil war
United States Institute of Peace (USIP), 2013, 3 p.
http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/PB-151.pdf
The lack of traditional reporting and verifiable journalistic reports
about the ongoing conflict in Syria has led to an increased dependence
on social media as a source of news. But assessing the veracity of these
reports has proven extremely difficult, creating consistent distortions
of Syria’s on-the-ground reality. The large amounts of social media
data emerging from conflict zones like Syria and new data analysis tools
have the potential to help overcome these distortions. Despite this
enthusiasm, a number of conceptual and practical hurdles remain before
these tools can create reliable predictive models of conflict dynamics.
(source: summary)

Syria’s cyber wars
Open Society Foundation, 2012, 25 p.
http://www.mediapolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/Syria-Cyber-Wars-06-01-2012-proof2.pdf

The government in Syria came to differentiate between political dissent
and the civil society activism in which the new generation plays a vital
role thanks to the use of social media. Unable to control the burst of
online activity, Damascus was forced to focus on monitoring key
dissenters and human rights activists rather than wasting time and
resources on monitoring thousands of youth and civil society activists
who are turning to web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook and Twitter to
promote change and development. Online social media, which virtually
anyone can use from home, played a central role in the Syrian uprising
and helped break the decades-old government media monopoly. But it
helped the Syrian government crack down on activists. (source: p.1)

Country case study: Syria. Support to media where media freedoms and
rights are constrained
London: BBC Media Action, 2012, 20 p.
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/pdf/syria.pdf 
Examining the media of one of the world’s most censored societies,
this report finds that the Syrian media is under increasing threat but
identifies growing use of new media to circumvent old restrictions.