How War Crimes have been affected by the Media


The promotion of war crimes which has been committed in Syria, to a large extent, have been heavily influenced by the media. This is due to the fact that within Syria, as well as the rest of the world, there has been growth in the presence of mobile devices with video and picture-taking capabilities. This has meant that civilians have been able to record the breaches in human rights, posting videos to social media, in particular to YouTube. Yuval Dror, the head of the digital communication program at Israel’s College of Management of Academic Studies, commented in 2013 on the influence of the media “In the past, if the media wasn’t there to cover an event, it was like it never happened.” The phenomenon of amateurs chronicling the war themselves “is changing the rules of war.” He said. “There are no restrictions. It’s cheap, it’s easy and you don’t need permission from anyone to do it.” The Huffington Post in 2013 also commented on the situation in Syria “… no conflict ever has been covered this way. Amateur videographers – anyone with a smartphone, Internet access and an eagerness to get a message out to the world – have driven the world’s outlook on the war through YouTube, Twitter and other social media.” This has allowed unfiltered videos of the civil war crisis to be documented and shared globally. Videos of bombings, use of chemical weapons such as chlorine and sarin gas, the dead and people within hospitals were all posted on YouTube allowing the international community to be able to see the violations of human rights that were occurring in Syria. This lead to the United Nations Human Rights Council establishing an Independent International Commission of Inquiry into the alleged breaches of human rights. Through this commission, it has been found that the Syrian Government, the opposition Shabiha, as well as the anti-government groups have all committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.  This promotion of human rights would not have occurred without the aid of the media and in particular to social media, revealing and documenting the violations. Social media has greatly aided this promotion effort due to its relative ease of access as well as the ability to quickly share and view uploads. 

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