YouTube and the Role of Digital Video for Transitional Justice in Syria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/politik.v19i4.27634Resumé
International media access is extremely limited in Syria and many human rights organisations rely on individual citizens and activists to provide them with evidence that could indicate war crimes and crimes against humanity. The role of YouTube and digital video for transitional justice in Syria is the central theme of this research paper. Research methodology is based on systematic observation of video clips on YouTube, visits to Syrian grass root audio-visual media centres and semi-structured interviews with Syrian video activists on the ground in Turkey and Syria. Fort this study, a conceptual thematic categorisation of eight different video-categories has been developed, based on observation, media-ethnography and regular monitoring of clips coming out of Syria since 2011 and in-depth surveillance of YouTube material uploaded between 2014 and 2015. In total 400 YouTube video clips were surveyed, analysed and monitored between 2014 and 2015. The paper assesses the feasibility of using these clips for legal evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The paper considers the latest approaches to using and verifying digital audio-visual material and how video can be used for future transitional justice and conflict resolution.Referencer
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Wessels, JI 2014, ‘Syria’s first Mobile Phone Films Festival celebrates new tool for civil resistance’, Your Middle East, 9 December Issue. Available at: http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/culture/syrias-first-mobile-phone-films-festival-celebrates-new-tool-for-civil-resistance-video_28449
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Available at: https://sapiensproductions.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/syria-lifts-ban-on-facebook-and-youtube-reflections-on-the-%e2%80%9cegypt-effect%e2%80%9d-in-syria-by-joshka-wessels/
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Al-Bunni, A 2008, ‘Syria’s Crisis of Expression’, Arab Insight, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 99-106.
Al-Ghazzi, O 2014, ‘‘Citizen Journalism’ in the Syrian Uprising: problematizing West-ern narratives in a local context’, Communication
Theory, vol. 24, pp. 435-454.
Amnesty International 2016, Citizen Evidence Lab. Available at: https://citizenevidence.org/ [Accessed 24 February 2016].
Aradau, C and Hill, A 2013, ‘The politics of drawing: children, evidence and the Darfur conflict’, International Political Sociology, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 368-387.
Askanius, T 2012, ‘DIY Dying: Video activism as archive, commemoration and evi-dence’, International Journal of E-Politics, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 12-25.
Bair, M 2012, ‘Is It Authentic? When Citizens and Soldiers Document War’, Witness Blog. Available at: https://blog.witness.org/2012/11/is-it-authentic-when-citizens-and-soldiers-document-war/ [Accessed 24 February 2016].
Bashar Al Assad 2011, Interviews President Bashar Al Assad and Hafez Al Assad. Available at: http://www.presidentassad.net/. [Accessed 3 August 2016].
Bashar Assad’s Crimes Archive 2013, +21 SYRIA, A Leaked Video that Shows the Regime's Forces Executing a Civilian. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjHh5fetcoM [Accessed 12 September 2014].
Bashar Assad’s Crimes Archive – 2 2013, (+21) Siria Idlib: massacre ad Ariha 21/7/2013. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsLO7lZ5VTM. [Ac-cessed 6 October 2014].
Baynetna 2013, Syria 2013 | Front Line FSA/SAA Conversation. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcXx1zfO1pc. [Accessed 11 March 2014].
BBC Newsnight 2016, ’This is not a civil war': Adviser to Syria's President Assad - BBC Newsnight. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz64RKj2ZVY. [Accessed 3 October 2016].
Boëx, C 2012, Emergency Cinema: an Interview with Syrian Collective Abounaddara. Available at: www.booksandideas.net/IMG/pdf/abounaddara_en.pdf [Accessed 3 June 2014].
Bourdieu, P and Whiteside, S 1996, Photography: a Middle-brow Art, Stanford Univer-sity Press, USA.
Castells, M 2001, The internet galaxy, reflections on the internet, business and society, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Channel 4 2016, Inside Aleppo. Available at: https://www.channel4.com/news/inside-aleppo [Accessed 12 October 2016].
Cole, A 2012, Pictures of Atrocity: Turning Video Footage into Evidence of War Crimes. Available at: www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/pictures-of-attrocity-turning-video-footage-into-evidence-of-war-crimes [Accessed 3 June 2014].
Deknatel, F 2014, ‘With more evidence of Assad war crimes, is transitional justice pos-sible in Syria?’, World Politics Review, 7th August Edition.
Dubberley, S; Griffin, E and Mert Bal, H. 2015, Making Secondary Trauma a Primary Issue: A Study of Eyewitness Media and Vicarious Trauma on the Digital Front-line. Available at: http://eyewitnessmediahub.com/research/vicarious-trauma [Ac-cessed 24 February 2016].
Elias, C and Omareen, Z 2014, ‘Syria’s Imperfect Cinema’, in: M Halasa (ed.), Syria Speaks Art and Culture from the Frontline, Saqi Books, London.
George, A 2003, Syria: Neither bread nor freedom, Zed Books, London
Goodenough, WH 1997, ‘Moral Outrage: Territoriality in Human Guise’, Zygon, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 5-27.
Gready, P 2005, ‘Re-conceptualising Transitional Justice: Embedded and Distanced Justice’, Conflict, Security & Development, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 3–21.
Halasa, M (ed.) 2014, Syria Speaks Art and Culture from the Frontline, Saqi Books, London.
Haskins, E 2017, ‘Between archive and participation: public memory in a digital age’, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 401-422.
ICTJ 2016, What is Transitional Justice. Available at:
https://www.ictj.org/about/transitional-justice [Accessed 1 March 2016].
IRIN 2012, The Beginnings of Transitional Justice in Syria. Available at: http://www.irinnews.org/report/97045/analysis-beginnings-transitional-justice-syria [Accessed 26 February 2016].
Jayyusi, L and Roald, AS 2016, Media and Political Contestation in the Contemporary Arab World: A Decade of Change, Palgrave, London.
Kenner, D 2014, ‘The controversial death of a teenage stringer’, Foreign Policy. Avail-able at: http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/01/07/the-controversial-death-of-a-teenage-stringer/ [Accessed 01 March 2016].
Koettl, C 2016, ‘Citizen media research and verification: an analytical framework for human rights practitioners’, Human Rights in the Digital Age: CGHR Practitioner Paper no. 1, Centre for Governance and Human Rights, University of Cambridge, Cambridge.
Koettl, C 2014, ‘The YouTube War: Citizen Videos Revolutionize Human Rights Mon-itoring in Syria’, Media Shift. Available at: www.pbs.org/mediashift/2014/02/the-youtube-war-citizen-videos-revolutionize-human-rights-monitoring-in-syria/
[Accessed 01 March 2016].
Lynch, M Freelon and Aday, SD 2014, Syria’s socially mediated civil war, United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Washington, USA.
Kaminski, M and Nalepa, M 2006, ‘Judging Transitional Justice: A New Criterion For Evaluating Truth Revelation Procedures’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 383–408.
Kelze, N, Van Dyke, M (2013), Not Anymore: Story of Revolution. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA8HsfRioWE&index=19&list=PL8fjpwOGK3sicS6-wh_F6JokAfv5JRx5r [Accessed 13 November 2014].
Khalaf, R, Ramadan O, and Stolleis, F 2014, ‘Activism in difficult times, civil society groups in Syria 2011-2014’, Badael Project and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Lebanon.
Matheson, K 2016, Video as evidence, field guide, Witness, New York.
New Tactics in Human Rights 2014, Using Video for Documentation and Evidence. Available at: https://www.newtactics.org/conversation/using-video-documentation-and-evidence. [Accessed 1 May 2015].
Prati, G 2015, ‘Between propaganda and public relations: an analysis of the Bashar al-Assad’s digital communications campaign’, Journal of International Affairs Online, 9th March 2015, Columbia SIPA: USA.
Russian Television 2016, ‘Americans are on our side’: Al-Nusra commander says US arming jihadists via 3rd countries. Available at: https://www.rt.com/news/360690-us-arms-nusra-syria/. [Accessed 13 October 2016].
Sandoval Villalba, C 2011, ‘Transitional justice: key concepts, processes and challeng-es’, IDCR Briefing Paper, Institute for Democracy and Conflict Resolution (IDCR), University of Essex, UK.
Schaak, B van 2014, Proving Control of Territory. Available at: https://www.newtactics.org/comment/7453#comment-7453. [Accessed 1 July 2015].
Shahba Press Agency 2013, Rasm Nafl: Tour and interviews in the village that wit-nessed a massacre of 208 people (transl.). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQTZoK7T6U0&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 13 November 2014].
Silverman, C (ed.) 2014, Verification Handbook, ultimate guideline on digital age sourcing for emergency coverage, European Journalism Centre (EJC), Maastricht.
SJAC 2015, What we do. Available at: https://syriaaccountability.org/what-we-do/. [Accessed 1 March 2016].
Syrian Archive 2015, Violation Database. Available at:
https://syrianarchive.org/database/ [Accessed 24 February 2016].
Syrian Civil War 2016, Jürgen Todenhöfer Facebook video of interview with Nusra commander geolocation. Available at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/54qlpr/j%C3%BCrgen_todenh%C3%B6fer_facebook_video_of_interview/ [Accessed 1 November 2016].
Syrian Scenes 2012, Al-Houla Massacre - Dozens of Children Murdered in Syria. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jffUNQw8Fl8&feature=youtu.be&bpctr=1480458426 [Accessed 13 November 2014].
The Local 2016, Man arrested in Sweden for War crimes. Available at: http://www.thelocal.se/20160315/syrian-arrested-in-sweden-for-war-crimes [Ac-cessed 3 October 2016].
Üngör, ÜU 2013, ‘Mass Violence in Syria: A Preliminary Analysis’, New Middle East-ern Studies, no. 3, pp. 1-22.
Üngör, ÜU 2015, ‘Mass murder on YouTube: How should we look at Syrian video clips?’, Your Middle East. Available at:
http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/culture/mass-murder-on-youtube-how-should-we-look-at-syrian-video-clips_29961 [Accessed 3 October 2016].
Wedeen, L 1999, Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric and Symbols in Con-temporary Syria, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Wedeen, L 2013, ‘Ideology and Humor in Dark Times: Notes from Syria’, Critical In-quiry, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 841-873.
Wessels, JI 2015a, ‘Syrian Masquerades of War’, in: C Sylvester (ed.), Masquerades of War, Routledge, London.
Wessels, JI 2015b, ‘Videooptagelser og den kollektive erindring’, in: B Møller and S Schmidt (eds.), Konflikten i Syrien: årsager, konsekvenser og handlemuligheder, Djøf Forlag, Copenhagen.
Wessels, JI 2014, ‘Syria’s first Mobile Phone Films Festival celebrates new tool for civil resistance’, Your Middle East, 9 December Issue. Available at: http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/culture/syrias-first-mobile-phone-films-festival-celebrates-new-tool-for-civil-resistance-video_28449
Wessels, JI 2011, ‘Syria Lifts Ban on Facebook and YouTube, reflections on the “Egypt Effect” in Syria’, Blog post, 11 February 2011.
Available at: https://sapiensproductions.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/syria-lifts-ban-on-facebook-and-youtube-reflections-on-the-%e2%80%9cegypt-effect%e2%80%9d-in-syria-by-joshka-wessels/
Zaman al Wasl 2016, Activists reveal identity of fake Nusra commander interviewed by Todenhofer. Available at: https://en.zamanalwsl.net/news/18698.html [Accessed 4 October 2016].
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2016-12-02
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Wessels, J. I. (2016). YouTube and the Role of Digital Video for Transitional Justice in Syria. Politik, 19(4). https://doi.org/10.7146/politik.v19i4.27634
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