[Johan Bollen]

As Al-Jazeera journalist Nir Rosen, who spent some months embedded with the Free Syria Army, explained: "Every day the opposition gives a death toll, usually without any explanation of the cause of the deaths. Many ... reported killed are in fact dead opposition fighters, but the cause of their death is hidden and they are described ... as innocent civilians killed by security forces, as if they were all merely protesting or sitting in their homes."

Analysis I did of what was reported to be the "deadliest day of the nine-month uprising" (December 20, 2011), with the "organized massacre" of a "mass defection" of army deserters widely reported by the international press, and opposition Syrian National Council claims of areas "exposed to large-scale genocide", showed that figures differed so significantly (between 10 and 163 armed insurgents, nine to 111 unarmed civilians and zero to 97 government forces), that the "truth" was impossible to establish. Similarly, analysis of The Guardian's data blog on casualties as of December 2011, based solely on press reports largely from opposition sources, contained basic inaccuracies and made no reference to any killings of armed insurgents during the entire 10-month period.

So the Observatory and "activists" provide doctored figures, the Western media report these figures uncritically, and the UN provides reports on the basis of opposition and activist sources alone.

Elke dag wordt er zowat verwezen in de westerse media naar de cijfers van dit in Londen gebaseerde 'observatorium voor mensenrechten in Syrië', terwijl het duidelijk is dat dit oorlogspropaganda in de hoogste graad is dat hier gefabriceerd wordt. De conclusie is duidelijk. De westerse media doen onkritisch en bewust mee aan het beliegen van de bevolking.