How journalists played prominent role during Kobanî battles

ZANA SIDI / KOBANÎ

The role of local journalists during the battles that lasted for months in the streets of Kobanî city has emerged in one of the most serious battles which the journalists have covered among the rubble of the devastated city with sounds of bullets and explosions.

Today, four years after the liberation of the city from IS on 26 January, 2015, it marks the fourth anniversary of the liberation of Kobanî as we now go back in memory to show the role of the journalists in that historic resistance.

The media outlets in Syria and the Middle East were considered the main tool in mobilizing the peoples, igniting the revolutions known as the "Arab Spring" and transferring these events to the external world, especially Syria as most of its cities and towns witnessed fighting among several parties. Hundreds of young men and women turned to be Journalists in northern Syria and have gained their expertise from working daily on preparing social and military news of their areas.

On October 5, 2014, battles have reached for the first time Kobanî city's outskirts, the city that is located in the northernmost of Syria on the border with Turkey. At least 300,000 civilians fled their homes towards the town of Seruj "Bersus" in North Kurdistan within the Turkish territories. The area witnessed a displacement that has not been witnessed in its history while some journalists from the city and its countryside insisted to stand by the forces defending the city despite the seriousness and the difficulties of those events.

During the period of the battles in which cannons and warplanes were used by the International Coalition to eliminate IS, the journalists came out with hundreds of pieces of news and reports that documented the historic resistance with light weapons against IS' weapons, and published hundreds of videos and scenes on the social media that highlighted the intensity of battles in the city and the massive destruction inflicted to the city's streets and residential buildings.

Haytham Muslem, one of the journalists who stayed on the last streets of the city where IS mercenaries were striving to reach and end the battle in Kobanî victoriously, "They were difficult scenes. All the people in the city were conflicting death, the winter cold and the heavy rains daily. The fighting fronts flaming and resembling hell, and we worked to translate that resistance on media as well."

According to Reporters without Borders, Syria has been classified as the most dangerous country for the journalists along with Mexico, Iraq, Afghanistan and Philippine as during the recent years, the journalists in these countries have been subjected to kidnapping and killing operations.

Dijla Ahmed, the correspondent of ANHA agency who stayed along with dozens of local and foreign journalists in the city to cover the battles that took place in the city in late 2014, noted that during the battles, they sought to transfer the facts and the fighters' resistance aiming for the impossible victory against the masses of the mercenaries who headed towards Kobanî, adding, "Many of our fellows lost their lives, and that increased our determination to reach our goal. Thanks to journalists in Kobanî, more than 93 countries revolted against IS' brutal attack supporting the city's defenders."

In the same context, the Turkish government prevented dozens of journalists from heading towards Kobanî and transferring the facts there at the time when the journalists exposed the involvement of the Turkish government in supporting IS directly during those battles.

The Syrian Human Rights Network reported that 682 journalists, reporters, photographers lost their lives in the conflict ongoing in Syria since the spring of 2011, mostly in the areas that witnessed battles between the Syrian regime forces supported by Russian warplanes and the opposition factions backed by Turkey.

While Turkey was listed among the countries against the freedoms of journalists. The Journalists Protection Committee in Europe announced in its annual report that 2018 witnessed the arrest of 251 journalists around the world, 25% of them in Turkey.

D.H

ANHA