Thread by @Syria_Irl

A real blow that @IrishTimes on the anniversary of the beginning of 10 years of slaughter in #Syria chose to publish another thoroughly misleading article by their regular contributor on the Middle East Michael Jansen whose columns differ little from the official Assad narrative

Jansen's is the main voice on Syria published by @IrishTimes for the past 10 yrs, & through her ongoing omission of 90% of what people need to know - rarely if ever mentioning atrocities, war crimes, massacres by Assad & allies -greatly contributes to the misinforming of readers

Article is as usual: no mention of Assad Russia bombs on families, hospitals, schools, bakeries, etc - deliberate strategy to force displacement of millions of Syrians

IT know @malachybrowne & other work proving these attacks: has no one at IT noticed Jansen never mentions them?

Syrians are very clear first step in future of Syria has to be release of & accountability for hundreds of thousands disappeared, tortured & killed in Assad's notorious death camps

Jansen does not mention these, despite dozens of reports corroborating their horrific existence

Jansen does not mention numerous international legal cases being taken against members of Assad regime or trial in Koblenz finding a member of his security forces guilty of crimes against humanity & where judge named 'industrialised' perpetration of such crimes in Assad prisons

Nor does she mention hugely important EU set of resolutions on Syria last week, proposed by @BarryAndrewsMEP, setting out a road map for future of Syria

The facts included in the resolution on crimes of Assad regime, Russia, Iran do not fit with the narrative Jansen promotes

Based on Jansen's relentless echoing of the Assad regime narrative, @IrishTimes readers know almost nothing about the substantial Syrian civil society within & outside of Syria. The false narrative promoted is that almost all opposition to Assad is from militarised extremists.

@simoncoveney @irishmissionun highlight that their most urgent task at UNSC is to prevent Russia from closing by veto the last humanitarian aid corridor into N Syria. Russia last year forced closure of all other aid routes & plans to block all aid to N Syria

Jansen ignores this

We could continue to list atrocities, war crimes & crimes against humanity perpetrated by Assad, Russia & Iran & ignored by Jansen

Do IT readers know that 90%+ of civilian deaths in Syria are by Assad & allies?
From reading Jansen, the relentless IT source on Syria, they wd not

In the article with which @IrishTimes insulted Syrians after 10yrs of slaughter Jansen eg says 'Russian aircraft rule Syrian skies' - with no mention of Russia bombing of civilians, hospitals, schools, aid convoys, refugee camps with cluster bombs, incendiaries, bunker busters

Jansen claims 'instead of spending money on rebuilding the government has been forced to spend on alleviating famine'

Syrian friends laughed out loud at that: they know, tho Jansen's readers dont, regime has looted billions from Syria, & siphon off well over half of UN aid

The Assad regime has been notoriously corrupt for 50 yrs. The Regime elite still lives in luxury while Syria starves - the proof is all over Instagram, not hard to research. Yet Jansen provides no information about any of this, her readers are kept in ignorance.

Of course there is no mention of Assad's use of chemical weapons against civilians. UN investigated 34 out of hundreds of attacks by Assad - their resources cd not stretch to all- & found Assad responsible for 32, ISIS for 2

How are @IrishTimes readers supposed to discover this?

We have drawn Jansen's bias towards Assad to attention of @IrishTimes before

Editors KNOW Jansen's coverage of Syria parallels that of Syria state news agency SANA & Russian state news & Russian MFA. They KNOW she omits most of what readers need to know about Syria

Do editors, staff and readers of @IrishTimes think it is acceptable for Irish public, politicians & policy makers to be so misled & misinformed on Syria?

10 yrs of coverage that edits out 90% of crucial information - the parts unfavourable to Assad - is reckless & dangerous

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