Russia Today And Their Anti-FSA Propaganda

As many of you no doubt are aware Russia Today, the English language government funded global news channel, has taken a rather strong stance against the Syrian opposition, and it here's a couple of examples of that stance that edge towards propaganda, or just bad journalism.

In this first article Russia Today claimed, before changing the article

Footage showing the results of an alleged massacre in the Syrian city of Hama in April has been obtained by RT. In the video, family members claim opposition rebels committed the atrocity.

The original text can be seen here, and on other similar sites.  Having no doubt watched the actual video they posted online they've now changed the text to this

Footage showing the results of an alleged massacre in the Syrian city of Hama in April has been obtained by RT. Sources say that opposition rebels committed the atrocity.

But still leaving the original text on the Russia Today Youtube page for the video.  So some kudos to them for correcting their mistake, even if it does undermine the main source of the claims made in the article, leaving them to unnamed mysterious "sources".

A more straight forward example is this article, Nothing safe, nothing sacred: Syrian rebels desecrate Christian churches?  Seemingly based off an post from the conspiracy website Prison Planet, it claims the following

Shocking images have surfaced, revealing the alleged desecration of Christian churches in Syria by Western-backed rebels. The pictures, taken by local Christians outraged at the violence, were published by PrisonPlanet.com.

In one of the photos a man who is said to be a member of the Free Syrian Army poses in a stolen priest’s robe while brandishing a looted cross in one hand and a machine gun in the other.  The photos were taken by a Christian woman in Homs, one of the cities most devastated by continued violent clashes between rebels and government forces.

“Everyone knows simply removing these garments from the church is a sin. The priest is the only one who wears them. They even pray before putting them on,” the woman told PrisonPlanet.com.

She added that after the rebels tore the church apart, they went inside to document their violence.

Images show church pews broken apart, with pieces strewn all over the nave. The floor is covered with rubble, and even the altar looks like it has been desecrated.

And it displays this image

But that photograph was not taken by a Christian in Homs, but by the group Lens Young Homsi, and the Russia Today image is their original photograph with the logo trimmed off

There's also a watermark across the photograph that says in Arabic "Lens Young Homsi", in case there's any doubt.  As for the other accusations of the rebels tearing the church apart, this video from inside the church filmed by activists appears to show a hole in the roof from shelling

So it appears that copying posts from conspiracy websites like Prison Planet doesn't really do much for your journalistic credibility.

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