Faced with a dangerous escalation of the Syrian conflict, and the alarming role yet again of many Western media in facilitating it, we are asking you to sign this petition, not to our governments but to media organisations and journalists to take a pledge to do their job responsibly and accountably.

We are asking for your support by signing this petition, which we will forward to all journalists reporting on Syria, everywhere we can, asking them to take a personal PLEDGE

i) Not to pass on information passively that could be used as a basis for military action without investigating it, verifying it, and making clear all doubts, as well as airing opposing arguments and voices.

ii) To represent accurately as far as possible where the majority of actual Syrian citizens’ support lies, and not to shy away from sharply criticising Western and Western-aligned Arab governments if shown to be complicit in supporting the involvement, arming or funding of non-Syrian jihadis/mercenaries in the Syrian military opposition.

iii) To refuse to passively pass on and rather to challenge the too easily spoken calls for war escalation made by politicians far away from the conflict zone, more concerned by geopolitical outcomes and their poll ratings than the lives of Syrians, with horrific immediate and long term consequences, as we have seen in Iraq and continue to see 10 years after the invasion on false grounds.

Please add your support to the Petition asking for journalists to take that Pledge.

We believe journalists’ role should be more in pursuit of peace and diplomacy rather than allowing or advocating the escalation of a conflict that will threaten us all if the vast majority of reporting continues in the default setting of parroting the pro-war spin of those in power in the USA, UK and France and their closely allied gulf state dictatorships Qatar and Saudi Arabia, from where arms are mostly being supplied, along with Turkey.

The media’s failure to effectively challenge the false pretexts for the 2003 Iraq war – the WMDs that could be launched in 45 minutes – facilitated the horrific death and destruction in Iraq, that still continues ten years later with dozens killed daily in ongoing sectarian bombings.

The pretext now being used to justify a ‘limited’ military strike on ‘selected targets’ in Syria – that the elected government was responsible for an alleged massive Chemical Weapons attack, appears as fraudulent as in Iraq, while the consequences and likelihood of escalation are far greater. Recent public opposition to this rush to war is in stark contrast to the media’s role in supporting their governments’ agendas, a role that has now been laid bare.

The failure of these Western media organisations and journalists to question the ‘honourable’ motivation and agenda of their own governments or consider alternatives to their claims, contrasts with their willingness to ascribe false motivations to Syria and her allies and to ignore the opinions of her people:

• Most Syrians want to keep their flawed president, and the unified, secular, religiously tolerant society he has led (read more)
  
• Most Syrians reject and fear the terrorism of West-supported mostly foreign jihadi militias, violently trying to ethnically cleanse their way to impose a sharia state (read more)
• There are just as many holes in the Sarin attack ‘evidence’ as in the ‘dodgy dossier’ used in the UK to bolster the Iraq war (read more)
• The Geneva II conference offered the only chance for peaceful settlement and democratic advances, but has now been stymied. This side effect of the alleged Sarin attack, like the attack itself, suits the Western agenda  for a proxy toppling of Assad by jihadi militias, however bloody and regardless of the long term consequences for the country and the region (read more)

The further supply of arms to the largely foreign mercenaries and jihadis fighting the Assad government, on the basis that this will help resolve the conflict is transparently false. In the spirit of Orwell’s 1984, the latest international news splashes tell us that “only more arms can bring peace ” and that these will be duly supplied by ‘the friends’ of Syria; ‘friends’, that is, who ignore the will of the people of Syria. Even countries amongst these ‘friends’ are expressing doubts about this pouring of fuel on the fire, and the stoking of sectarian hatred that accompanies it.

The current and growing threat of a ‘limited’ and ‘punitive’ strike, ‘lasting days’, and suggestions it would make President Assad stop using Chemical Weapons are frankly puerile, even if you believed the ‘Syrian dodgy dossier’. Thanks to our media, at this point most people do.

Please have a read of the articles in the Analysis section, and also see the suggestions we’ve received for examples of bad reporting in the Spin Bin and more worthwhile material in Recommended Reading.

We will be contacting journalists with requests to sign the Pledge backed up by the petition continually while the conflict remains unresolved. So PLEASE SHARE AS WIDELY AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN with friends, family, work colleagues, campaign groups and so on.

SHARE YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES of both poor and good reporting – for Spin Bin and Recommended Reading – by using the CONTACT FORM; include a link and your commentary on the piece (up to 250 words max).

Finally, if you have ideas on how we could improve the site, or are a public figure willing to bolster the campaign, please get in touch. Your support is needed.

Hope to see you back here soon to check out the latest posts.

Thank you,

The step-back team