For several weeks we’ve watched as videos have trickled out of Syria onto YouTube and other websites. The Syrian activists who take the video say they are images of protests that turned violent at the hands of the Syrian government.
While the images and sounds are horrible, journalists and monitoring agencies like Human Rights Watch are left to try and verify each and every video that comes out of Syria. To tell the story accurately, we must piece together as much information about these videos is important.
Anthony Shadid, foreign correspondent for our partner The New York Times describes the process he and his colleagues go through in order to verify the stories coming out of Libya. Joe Stark, deputy director of the Middle East division at Human Rights Watch also explains how his colleagues tally death tolls and whether these videos aid in the grim process.
This video was taken by an activist named Wissam Tarif in the town of Latakia on April 19. We should warn listeners, it is graphic and disturbing:
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