Journalism group to hold conference on disinformation campaign after Beirut blast
A group addressing worldwide efforts at silencing journalists and media outlets is to hold a conference on the disinformation efforts that have been launched in the aftermath of the recent deadly explosion that hit Beirut.
The event is to be held by the Journalist Support Committee -- which was formed in 2016 following the Arab uprisings and protests that hit the region. It has been seeking to ensure accountability for the murder of many journalists covering the protests and attempts at silencing some media outlets addressing the same issue.
The conference is slated to go underway on August 18 under the title, “Beirut Explosion: Why is There Disinformation and Fake News Being Spread?”
It has Peter Ford, former British ambassador to Bahrain and Syria, as keynote speaker. In attendance are also Dr. Marwa Osman, lecturer, writer, and broadcaster, Dr. Piers Robinson, an academic specializing in propaganda analysis, and Mike Raddie, co-editor of alternative news website BSNEWS.
The last Tuesday blast was reportedly caused by explosion of some 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the Beirut port, destroying the country’s main grain silo. It has so far killed at least 172 people and injured thousands others.
According to the US news and opinion website The Daily Beast, a Saudi Arabia-linked disinformation campaign has been distributing tons of fallacious content across the Twitter to try and blame the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah for the cataclysmic incident.
Immediately after the tragedy, four Saudi-linked influencer accounts began flushing out a surfeit of conspiracy theories onto the social media platform, the website said, citing intelligence sources. The disinformation storm had the hashtag “Hezbollah’s Ammonia Burns Beirut” trending in just 24 hours.
Hezbollah turned itself into an integral part of Lebanon’s defensive structure after defending the country against two Israeli wars in the 2000s. The movement that also features strongly on Lebanon’s political scene has been calling for unity in the wake of the tragedy.
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday called for an impartial investigation into the massive blast.
Speaking in a televised speech, Nasrallah said those responsible for the deadly disaster had to be held to account regardless of their affiliations, and stressed that the probe should have neither political nor sectarian motives..
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