Addounia TV: Unrest happening in ‘fake cities’

A number of media outlets have reported that a documentary has been recently broadcast on Syrian news channel Addounia TV which claims that the unrest in the country is not actually happening. The documentary alleges that al-Jazeera news had filmed the footage in replica cities built in Qatar using filmmakers and actors, with the aim of creating a false impression of what is happening in Syria. The documentary asserts that movie-set versions of Syrian cities and public squares have been constructed with the help of American and French directors, and that a similar illusion was created for the Libyan conflict. The documentary reported that “The world and the Libyans were deceived by those replicas that Tripoli fell. With those replicas, Al Jazeera will continue media fabrication and cinematic tricks by shooting scenes of big defections from the Arab Syrian Army and shooting scenes of clashes between some elements who claim being defectors and elements from the regime.” Addounia TV is owned by Mohamed Hamsho, the brother-in-law to Maher al-Assad, who is the commander of Syria’s Republican Guard and brother to the Syrian president.

If the documentary’s accusations are true, then surely the Syrian government would allow foreign journalists into Syria in order to prove that the real cities are peaceful, and that the unrest is confined to ‘fake’ Qatari film sets. Seeing as the government has not taken such a step, the logical conclusion is that Addounia TV, rather than al-Jazeera, is the one who is guilty of ‘media fabrication’.