Syriagate: Western firm's advice for Syria proves ineffective in media war

[pmaitra]

Syriagate: Western firm's advice for Syria proves ineffective in media war

Screenshot from wikileaks.org/syria-files/

Syria received specific guidance from a private communications company on how to fight back in a massive media battle launched by the West, a fresh leak of Syria-linked files has revealed. But that war was lost the day it began.

Global communications firm Brown Lloyd James gave the Syrian government advice on exactly how to regain the trust of the US Administration, as well as its own public. This is evidenced by an e-mail from the firm to the government that was sent in May 2011, and was recently released as part of the "Syria Files."

"Reform-oriented outreach must be dramatically improved, at home and abroad, or else the credibility of these efforts—and a key part of the President's appeal and popularity among the people—will be diminished," the e-mail reads "Refocusing the perception of outsiders and Syrians on reform will provide political cover to the generally sympathetic US Government, and will delegitimize critics at home and abroad."

The reform campaign should be public and visible, capable of addressing the grievances and demands of ordinary Syrians. This includes hiring street teams in communities to poll ordinary citizens, as well as setting up an "echo-chamber" outside of Syria to report on Bashar al-Assad's plans to conduct reforms and promulgate calls for stability.

The firm also advises the Syrian government to hold soldiers caught violating the state's order not to fire at unarmed civilians accountable for their actions. This would show the public the Syrian government justly persecutes all law breakers, be they from the opposition or the armed forces.

The regime is counseled to purvey a sense of law and order, and underscore the importance of gradual reform in a climate of peace and stability.

Syria must also "improve its ability to contain negative media stories circulated by opposition figures living outside Syria", the e-mail says. To do this, the Syrian government is advised to set up a 24-hour media monitoring and response system with assets in the US and UK markets, to keep an eye over social media sites and to get rid of false sites.

Source: Syriagate: Western firm's advice for Syria proves ineffective in media war — RT

To be merged later with: http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/west-asia-africa/31541-syrian-crisis.html

 

[asianobserve]

I guess there's not much a PR firm can do when you have a stubborn and brutal client (the disproportionate force used and the killings early on + smart phones and internet were something that cannot be effectively neutralised by PR stunts especially if the latter is still stuck in the TV age). Besides, the political lines were drawn a long time ago in both Western capitals and their population and I doubt a PR firm can redraw it in just a matter of months. This PR firm should not have accepted this Mission Impossible in the first place. But I guess they got greedy, now they're doomed...

 

[pmaitra]

I guess there's not much a PR firm can do when you have a stubborn and brutal client (the disproportionate force used and the killings early on + smart phones and internet were something that cannot be effectively neutralised by PR stunts especially if the latter is still stuck in the TV age). Besides, the political lines were drawn a long time ago in both Western capitals and their population and I doubt a PR firm can redraw it in just a matter of months. This PR firm should not have accepted this Mission Impossible in the first place. But I guess they got greedy, now they're doomed...

Smart phone videos prove nothing, not after one fake incident was exposed. It happened one during Israel-Palestine conflict, and was later found out to be fake. See below:

 

[asianobserve]

What is important is the immediate reaction. Even if smart phone videos are later on proved to be fake the damage most probably by then has already been done on an international scale. But AFAIK there has not been instances when an independent party has declared some of the smart phones videos out of Syria to have been faked.

 

[amoy]

Now al Assad's private life is being probed into Mystery lover? Is it part of a "media war"?

Assad mystery lover to get PhD from British varsity - Yahoo! News India