Time: 6:00 - 8:00pm Venue: 601 Graduate Centre Queen Mary University of London E1 4NS London United Kingdom
About the Report
In April 2018, the US, UK and France bombed Syria. The precision strikes on various facilities described as harbouring an ongoing Syrian chemical weapons programme followed horrific reports of a chemical attack in Douma on 7th April. Immediately after the incident, perspectives polarised on both sides, with differing reports emerging about the attack, leading to entrenched confusion and division in public discourse. 'State Propaganda in Syria: From War Crimes to Pipelines', an investigative report by Nafeez Ahmed of the independent crowdfunded publication Insurge Intelligence, addresses these issues by conducting a comprehensive and forensic examination of core conflict narratives relating to Syria promulgated by both states and media. The report investigates competing Western, Syrian and Russian narratives around chemical weapon attacks, the White Helmets, regime change, the attribution of war crimes, the motives of warring parties, pipeline geopolitics and other contentious issues, bringing to light the vast extent to which different states are responsible for promulgating propaganda about the war to serve their own interests. The report raises crucial methodological questions about how these state practices have impacted journalism in Syria, and in particular the danger that journalism on the conflict has in itself become weaponised by competing parties.
About the Author
Dr Nafeez Ahmed is an award-winning investigative journalist and interdisciplinary academic. He is founding editor and chief writer for INSURGE intelligence, a crowdfunded investigative journalism platform that breaks exclusive stories on the world’s most pressing global challenges. He is ‘System Shift’ columnist at VICE’s science magazine Motherboard, and a columnist at Middle East Eye where he covers regional geopolitics. Previously, Nafeez wrote The Guardian’s ‘Earth insight’ blog from 2013 to 2014, where he reported on the geopolitics of interconnected energy, environmental and economic crises.
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