Mainstream media make accusations about the use of chemical weapons when the scales on the front are tipping in favour of the side they support, explains Omerta online media editor-in-chief Regis Le Sommier. This is what Western media did when covering the war in Iraq or Syria, he says, but Russia has no interest in carrying out chemical attacks now.
ELISE BLEZ, TVL anchor: What do these accusations (of Russia’s use of chemical weapons) tell you? It’s not the first time: at the very beginning of the Ukrainian conflict, they were there too. And, of course, we remember Colin Powell’s test tube, which was needed to be sent to Iraq. How do you feel about that?
REGIS LE SOMMIER, lead reporter and editor-in-chief of the online media Omerta: There have been many such allegations. I covered a lot of the war in Syria, where chemical weapons were also used, both by Bashar al-Assad’s forces and some opposition groups.
What’s interesting is that in reporting on the conflict, when the side that is backed by the, let’s say, mainstream media is retreating – chemical weapons suddenly appear. This was the case when the Syrian army, after a long retreat during the first phase of the war with the help of Russia, Hezbollah and Iran, began to retake territory. From that moment on, they started saying that it was using chemical weapons and so on, that they were dirty weapons. Information about torture also began to emerge. Such arguments created a tricky situation in the narrative of the conflict, because the way war is presented is as important as the war itself. It allows for a rebalancing of the catastrophic or at least difficult situation on the front.
In this case, there’s talk about the use of tear gas, and I’m not sure what…
ELISE BLEZ: And chloropicrin, they say.
REGIS LE SOMMIER: …that after using with, if I’m not mistaken, an FPV drone, that is a small drone with first-person video that was allegedly equipped with chemical weapons — that this is possible. However, at the current moment, I don’t see Russia being interested in it.
1,574 total views, 2 views today
