Israel Matzav

Nir Rosen accused of collaborating with Assad

Nir Rosen was fired by New York University and the London School of Economics, after he tweeted that he had 'run out of sympathy' for CBS reporters Lara Logan, after she was sexually assaulted in Egypt. Now, he stands accused of reporting on the movements of his fellow reporters to the Assad regime in Syria (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

Correspondence between Nir Rosen and Bashar al-Assad’s advisers emerged after the Syrian president’s personal email account was broken into by opposition groups and his messages handed to media organisations including the Daily Telegraph.

In the emails Mr Rosen tries to land an interview with Mr Assad, arguing that the international media was already reporting from inside of restricted zones in Syria, and highlighted favourable coverage of the regime he had secured on al-Jazeera.

In one message from November, Mr Rosen forwarded a BBC story from Homs by the journalist Paul Wood as evidence that Western media groups were evading the regime’s attempts to keep them out of the war zone. His email was eventually forwarded to Mr Assad himself, with one adviser writing “Paul wood was smuggled to Homs!!!”, an indication that they were unaware of his presence until Mr Rosen drew attention to it.

In a second message, one of Mr Assad’s aides reports that Mr Rosen had “personally informed” him that Western reporters were entering Syria from the Lebanese border and other prohibited routes.

In an earlier exchange arguing that he should be allowed to interview the Syrian president, Mr Rosen writes: “I have succeeded in getting al-Jazeera International to show the pro-government demonstrations in Syria and in showing that Bashar and his government have a lot of support and also in showing that there are definitely armed groups attacking the Syrian security forces.”

...

A spokesman for the Revolutionary Council in Homs, who asked not to be named for his safety, accused Mr Rosen of “trading information about us and journalists in Homs with the regime in exchange for privileges from Bashar Assad's regime.”

In an interview with the Telegraph, Mr Rosen said the only information he shared were links to stories already available on the internet and said that more senior Syrian security officials would have already known about the presence of Western journalists.

What a lowlife. If you thought nothing of him before, you can think him a quisling now.

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Nir Rosen, Syrian uprising

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:36 AM