Al-Jaafari: Many media outlets promote for terrorism

New York – Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari stressed that the unprecedented media machine campaign continues for the fifth year in a row of persevering efforts to provoke towards committing terrorism and violence, and spreading incitement and lies regarding the situation in Syria in a blatant violation of UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution No. 1624 for 2005 and of journalism ethics if any.

 In an open session before the UNSC under the title “protecting civilians in armed conflicts  … protecting journalists” Wednesday, al-Jaafari pointed out the mobilization of many media  outlets for promoting for terrorism and attracting foreign terrorist fighters from all over  the world to come to Syria in a deliberate violation of UNSC resolutions related to  counterterrorism amidst suspicious paralysis of UNSC and its sub-committees.

“These campaigns were accompanied with attempts to silence the Syrian media through  targeting its institutions and personnel, pointing out that 33 journalists and workers at  media institutions were killed and dozens of others were injured or kidnapped by armed  terrorist organizations that some UNSC states overtly brag of training them on the Turkish  and Jordanian territories and others.

He pointed that the Syrian government worked on dealing with media openly and issued a new media law since the first few weeks of the crisis as a reform step that aims at boosting media work and achieve more transparency and freedom, clarifying that the Syrian government was committed to work with the former UN Special Envoy Kofi Annan and fulfilled his six- point plan including the fifth point on the journalists’ entrance and work.

Al-Jaafari clarified that the Syrian commitment was manifested through granting licenses of the entrance and work of hundreds of Arab and foreign journalists, which was confirmed by Annan.

Syria’s Permanent Representative noted that the Syrian government still welcomes and receives journalists who are willing to enter Syria legally through the official border crossings so that they could work freely.

Al-Jaafari said that the Syrian government paid attention to the safety of journalists and demanded them not to enter the country illegally and avoid the areas where terrorist groups including “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” (ISIS) spread, adding unfortunately some of the journalists were killed or kidnapped by terrorists as a result of not responding.

“Nonetheless, some journalists still sneak into the Syrian territories illegally through borders with the neighboring countries and with the help of armed groups or the authorities of the neighboring countries, an act that may threaten their lives,” he continued to say.

Al-Jaafari noted that while he was talking before the UNSC, the Qatari al-Jazeera Channel was hosting the terrorists “Abu Mohammad al-Joulani” the leader of the so-called “Jabhat al-Nusra” terrorist organization, which is registered in the list of the UNSC Committee related to al-Qaeda, in an interview that promotes for terrorism and launches more threats to the Syrian government and people.

He affirmed that making such an interview is a flagrant violation of the UNSC resolutions related to counterterrorism, particularly Resolution No. 1624 on preventing provoking towards terrorism, pointing out that it is an obvious attempt of the Qatari regime to “laundering the profile of Jabhat al-Nusra”.

The Syrian TV Channel, al-Mayadeen TV and other channels known for being close to the Resistance are undergoing attempts of jamming within the continuous media war campaign against Syria.

SANA