hAMDEn - Ia tidak mengambil masa yang lama, selepas Rusia memulakan kempen pengeboman anti-pengganas, bagi media sosial yang akan dibanjiri dengan 'bukti' korban awam. Dakwaan itu mudah berulang kali oleh media arus perdana Barat.
Kementerian Pertahanan Rusia melaporkan bahawa ia dijalankan 20 sorties pada hari pertama operasi Syria dan mengebom 8 sasaran di Syria, termasuk senjata dan depot bahan api dan pusat-pusat perintah Negara Islam (IS, yang sebelum ini ISIS/ISIL) kumpulan. Semua sasaran jauh dari kawasan bandar, kementerian tertekan.
Hampir pada masa yang sama, laporan mula permukaan di media sosial mendakwa Rusia tidak menyerang pengganas. Sebaliknya, ia mendakwa pesawat perang Rusia menyerang kawasan perumahan, membunuh berpuluh-puluh orang awam. Yang lain berkata: tidak ada IS kehadiran di kawasan serangan dan jawatan-jawatan ini sebenarnya dipegang oleh "pemberontak sederhana."
Cerita nampaknya dipasang terlalu baik ke dalam biasa 'Rusia adalah penjahat' naratif untuk media Barat untuk lulus oleh. Wartawan bertanya kepada Setiausaha Pertahanan Ash Carter untuk pengesahan.
"Saya mahu berhati-hati mengesahkan maklumat, tetapi ia kelihatan bahawa mereka berada di kawasan di mana terdapat mungkin tidak angkatan ISIL," katanya kepada pemberita, kurang sedikit daripada yang mengesahkan dakwaan tersebut.
Menteri Luar Rusia Sergey Lavrov bergurau bahawa wartawan yang ingin mendapatkan maklumat yang tepat mengenai kempen Rusia perlu bertanya tentera Rusia dan tidak Pentagon.
Pentagon seolah-olah menjadi jengkel dengan kehadiran tentera Rusia di Syria. Carter mengadu bahawa Moscow telah memaklumkan jabatannya serangan berlaku hanya 1 jam lebih awal daripada masa, penjenamaan masa yang singkat tidak profesional. Terdapat juga laporan bahawa Rusia telah menuntut pesawat pejuang Amerika Syarikat disimpan di ruang udara Syria.
Information warfare? Russia accused
of killing civilians in Syria . . .
It didn’t take long, after Russia began its anti-terrorist bombing campaign, for social media to be flooded with ‘evidence’ of civilian casualties. The claims were readily repeated by Western mainstream media.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that it conducted 20 sorties on the first day of the Syrian operation and bombed eight targets in Syria, including weapon and fuel depots and command centers of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) group. All targets were far from urban areas, the ministry stressed.
Virtually simultaneously, reports started surfacing on social media claiming Russia is not attacking terrorists. Instead, it’s claimed Russian warplanes attacked residential areas, killing dozens of civilians. Others said there was no IS presence in the attack areas and these positions were actually held by “moderate rebels.”
The narrative apparently fitted too well into the familiar ‘Russia is the villain’ narrative for Western media to pass it by. Journalists asked Defense Secretary Ash Carter for confirmation.
"I want to be careful about confirming information, but it does appear that they were in areas where there probably were not ISIL forces," he told reporters, falling short of confirming the allegations.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov joked that journalists who want to get accurate information about the Russian campaign should ask the Russian military and not the Pentagon.
The Pentagon seems to be irritated with the Russian military presence in Syria. Carter complained that Moscow had informed his department of imminent strikes just one hour ahead of time, branding such short notice unprofessional. There were also reports that Russia had demanded US warplanes be kept out of Syrian airspace.
Russia strike in Homs today. 33 civilians killed including 3 children and 1@SyriaCivilDef volunteer. 10:19 PM - 30 Sep 2015
Laporan korban awam yang disebabkan oleh Rusia di Syria kebanyakannya berasal dari kuasa-kuasa pembangkang Syria, yang menyalahkan Rusia untuk membantu Presiden Bashar Assad. Beberapa bukti gambar yang 'pembunuhan oleh Rusia' telah dengan mudah ‘disproven’. Satu gambar seorang pekerja menyelamat Syria membawa seorang gadis cedera ‘resulting’ dari "serangan Rusia di Homs" yang membunuh 33 orang awam, termasuk 3 kanak-kanak pertama kali muncul pada 25 September, hampir seminggu sebelum serangan udara bermula.
Beberapa video yang didakwa menunjukkan selepas pengeboman Rusia di Syria telah muncul dalam talian. Pembangkang popular saluran YouTube dipanggil "talbisa h" yang menghantar rakaman perang dari Syria yang dikeluarkan kira-kira 30 video dirakam di pelbagai lokasi, dengan mendakwa bahawa sesetengah daripada mereka menunjukkan hasil tindakan Rusia. Media berita Barat seperti CNN, Euronews dan agensi-agensi seperti Reuters menyiarkan video walaupun mereka berkata mereka tidak dapat mengesahkan kebenarannya.
"Masalahnya ialah bahawa semua orang adalah sangat ideologi ketika datang untuk kempen Syria. Yang memesongkan laporan mereka, "Max Abrahams, penolong profesor di Universiti Timur Laut, memberitahu RT.
Moscow percaya ada kempen dirancang untuk melemahkan kedudukannya dalam konflik Syria.
"Laporan berat sebelah dan palsu telah membanjiri media Barat dan serantau mendakwa operasi tentera Rusia yang menyebabkan kematian orang awam atau bertujuan menentang kuasa-kuasa pro-demokrasi dan penduduk aman. Itulah serangan maklumat, peperangan maklumat yang kita semua telah mendengar banyak tentang. Rupa-rupanya orang2 datang cukup bersedia untuk itu, "kata Mariya Zakharova, jurucakap Kementerian Luar Rusia,.
"Semua laporan memerlukan pengesahan berhati-hati kerana terdapat banyak maklumat yang berat sebelah, diputarbelitkan dan palsu," kata jurucakap presiden Dmitry Peskov, sambil menambah bahawa komunikasi melalui saluran yang betul merupakan penyelesaian kerja kepada masalah ini. "Jangan menjadi mangsa kepada maklumat itu."
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Rusia telah menerima pelbagai tuduhan pada masa lalu yang kemudiannya terbukti palsu. Pada tahun 2008, apabila Georgia melancarkan serangan ke atas Ossetia Selatan, membunuh pasukan pengaman Rusia dan memprovokasi tindak balas ketenteraan dari Moscow, Tbilisi pergi pada serangan media untuk menggambarkan dirinya sebagai mangsa pencerobohan Rusia. Dakwaan-dakwaan tersebut telah diambil pada nilai muka oleh media Barat selama beberapa hari.
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Pada tahun lalu, Rusia telah berulang kali dituduh menyerang Ukraine oleh pegawai-pegawai di Kiev dan beberapa penajaan. Sekali lagi, gambar dari media sosial telah dibentangkan sebagai bukti pencerobohan yang dikatakan dan juga disahkan oleh pegawai Amerika dan media. Kadang-kadang, ini mengakibatkan penghinaan utama, apabila gambar kemudiannya didedahkan sebagai palsu.
Amateur video allegedly shows aftermath of a Russian airstrike. © Reuters/YouTube
Reports of civilian casualties caused by Russia in Syria mostly originate from the Syrian opposition forces, who blame Russia for helping President Bashar Assad. Some of the photo evidence of the ‘killings by Russia’ was easily disproven. A photo of a Syrian rescue worker carrying an injured girl –resulting from a “Russian strike in Homs” that killed 33 civilians, including three children first appeared on September 25, almost a week before the airstrikes started.
A number of videos allegedly showing the aftermath of Russian bombings in Syria has surfaced online. A popular opposition YouTube channel called “talbisa h” that is posting war footage from Syria released some 30 videos shot at various locations, claiming that some of them showed the results of Russia’s actions. Major Western news outlets such as CNN, Euronews and agencies like Reuters aired the videos even though they said they couldn’t verify their veracity.
“The problem is that everyone is very ideological when it comes to the Syrian campaign. That distorts their reporting,” Max Abrahams, assistant professor at Northeastern University, told RT.
Moscow believes there is an orchestrated campaign to undermine its position in the Syrian conflict.
“Biased and false reports have flooded Western and regional media claiming the Russian military operation is causing civilian deaths or even is aimed against pro-democratic forces and the peaceful population. That is an information attack, the information warfare that we all have heard so much about. Apparently someone came well-prepared for it,” Mariya Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said.
“All reports require very careful verification as there is plenty of biased, distorted and false information,” said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, adding that communication through proper channels is a working solution to the problem. “Don’t fall victim to that information.”
Russia has had its share of accusations in the past that were later proven false. In 2008, when Georgia launched an attack on South Ossetia, killing Russian peacekeepers and provoking a military response from Moscow, Tbilisi went on a media offensive to portray itself as a victim of Russian aggression. The allegations were taken at face value by Western media for days.
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In the past year, Russia has been repeatedly accused of invading Ukraine by officials in Kiev and some of its sponsors. Again, photos from social media were presented as evidence of the alleged invasion and even endorsed by American officials and media. Occasionally, this resulted in major humiliation, when the photos were later exposed as fakes.
