Staged or Real? CNN Faces Criticism Over Syrian Prisoner Rescue Coverage

CNN recently came under criticism when a broadcast that claimed to have rescued a prisoner in Syria turned out to be false. CNN’s Clarissa Ward and her colleagues stated that the inmate who was first named as Adel Gharbal was a civilian who had been rescued from a secret jail in Damascus.

The broadcast which aired on December 12th featured a guy who identified himself as Adel Gharbal and claimed to be a civilian caught by Mukhabarat intelligence. He said he had been imprisoned for three months and was detained in a cell without food or water for four days before being released by rebel fighters.

However, four days later, the Syrian fact checking website “Verify-sy” reported that the guy was Salama Mohammad Salama who is a lieutenant in the Syrian Air Force Intelligence known as Abu Hamza. According to Verify-sy’s study, Salama had a well known reputation in Homs for extortion and harassment and he had been imprisoned for less than a month over an extortion issue.

In reaction to the discoveries, CNN admitted the misrepresentation about the prisoner’s identification in a December 16 report. The network referenced Verify-sy’s report but said it couldn’t validate the accusations at the time. The article questioned the video’s legitimacy citing Salama’s well-groomed look and clean clothing which contrasted his allegations of being deprived of basic requirements.

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