Syrian media should be a loud voice of truth: Local media director

A leader in Syrian media has called for media in his country to remain independent, and to share truthful stories with the world about Syria in the face of distortions by the west. His comments, made at the Boao Forum for Asia earlier this month, were a subject of discussion in a commentary published on Saturday at Haiwainet.cn, the overseas website of People's Daily.

Somar Wassof attends a forum at the Media Leaders' Summit for Asia in Sanya, Hainan Province, on April 9, 2018. [Photo: China Plus]

At the annual Boao Forum, Somar Wassof, the director of administrative affairs for Syrian Arab Radio and TV-ORTAS SYRIA, said that his country is losing its voice to western media, who he believes is distorting what truly happened in Syria.

"Due to the decline of civil society in Syria, western media is manipulative and interferes with how stories about Syria are reported. They distort the facts by defining conflicts in Syria as a war among brothers, while remaining silent about regional and international interference. They are inciting wars and destroying Syria," said Wassof.

Wassof urged Syrian media to retake the right to tell truthful stories to the outside world about Syria.

"Since 2011, over 14,000 Syrian civilians have been killed in the shelling of terrorist groups near Damascus and more than 7,000 people have been killed in attacks in Aleppo. The public has been stopped from hearing about what happened to these tens of thousands of people, as western media decides how to tell stories about Syria. If people don't know the facts and the truth, it is impossible to establish friendly relations between countries. So it is very necessary for us to retake the power to tell true stories about Syria," said Wassof.

Damascus skies erupt with anti-aircraft fire as the United States launches an attack targeting different parts of the Syrian capital Damascus early on April 14, 2018. [Photo: AP]

The United States, along with Britain and France, launched airstrikes on military targets in Syria on Saturday for its alleged use of chemical weapons early this month. The Syrian government has denied the allegation and strongly condemned the U.S.-led attack.

Syria had called for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the alleged chemical attack. But the three nations launched the airstrikes on the day the investigators arrived in Damascus.