敘利亞的媒體戰爭(四)／朱弘川編譯

In 2013, Human Rights Watch documented how a sphere of militant Sunni Twitter accounts urged rebels toward the atrocities that would eventually be committed in a massacre of Alawite civilians on the Syrian coast. For its part, the regime “saw in the power of social media the ability to bring people together and mobilize them quickly”—in other words, to incite, says Lamensch. All sides, she says, “really make use of powerful images to spread their message—a lot of dead bodies to say, ‘This is what your opponents are doing.’”

在2013年，人權觀察組織（Human Rights Watch）記錄了激進的遜尼派如何用Twitter慫恿反叛軍進行殘暴的行為，而這殘暴的行為最終導致敘利亞海岸的阿拉維派人（Alawite）大屠殺。這起事件讓政府「看見社群媒體的力量，看它如何將民眾聚集在一起，並迅速的動員」，這是更有效的煽動，Lamensch這麼認為。她更強調，「利用影像來傳遞他們的訊息，以讓更多的屍體說話」，「這就是你的對手做的事。」

Into this climate of growing hatred walked the Islamic State. Since its emergence from an internecine feud within in late 2013, no group has proven as adept at exploiting Syria’s media divides. ISIS told followers, primed from months of deteriorating sectarian rhetoric, that it was establishing a caliphate, and doing so required a social cleansing: out with Shiites, apostates, and religious minorities. Soon, the group’s followers began act on that struggle, documenting their grotesque quest in a media campaign so slick and compelling it has lured thousands of converts the world over.

伊斯蘭世界充斥著仇恨，得從2013年蓋達組織所挑起的仇殺開始，因為沒人能像蓋達組織一樣，如此擅長分化敘利亞媒體。伊斯蘭國告訴他們的追隨者，過去這幾個月詆毀分化宗教的說辭，都是為了確立伊斯蘭哈里發（caliphate）的主權，所以社會淨化是必需的手段，包括什葉派、叛教者，和其它宗教的少數團體，都是淨化的對象。所以，伊斯蘭國的追隨者，將他們那難以令人信服又陳腐的訴求，希望藉由媒體戰，吸引全世界的目光。

BACK IN THE ORIENT TV NEWSROOM, Abdulrahim paces and hovers, awaiting word from a small town in Northern Syria. For the previous 11 days, the rebel stronghold of Zabadani had come under aerial bombardment from government forces. The satellite network had managed to get a reporter inside, but the situation was dicey. “This correspondent has been working in a hard situation for the last two years,” Abdulrahim tells me, recounting between cigarette puffs how the young journalist—most Orient staff are in their 20s—had been on the run constantly from one armed group or another.

回到Orient TV的編輯室，Abdulrahim不斷來回踱步，正等著敘利亞北方一個小鎮的消息。這11天以來，反抗軍的大本營扎巴達尼（Zabadani）正遭受政府軍方的空襲，電視台派了一位記者潛入採訪，但目前情況不明。「這位記者過去兩年都一直在相當艱辛的情況下工作」，Abdulrahim這麼說。他一邊抽著菸，一邊跟我描述這位年輕記者，Orient TV大多數的員工都是20多歲，穿梭於各軍隊中。

As days at the office go, this is fairly routine for Abdulrahim. Six of the station’s journalists have died reporting in Syria since 2011, and another 15 are in prison, according to Aboud.

待在辦公室裡，這差不多是Abdulrahim的例行公事。根據Aboud的說法，從2011年開始，6位新聞記者在報導敘利亞新聞時死亡，其他有15名被關起來。

Orient TV has no security detail to protect its correspondents, and everyone at the channel knows these casualties are probably not the last.

Orient TV沒有任何辦法可以保護它的記者，每位在電視台工作的人都了解，這樣的情況仍會不斷發生。

Orient TV’s fiercest opponent these days is not the Syrian government, but ISIS. The extremist group is currently holding at least five Orient TV staff in unknown locations, and the station’s equipment has been the target of repeated attacks. In February 2013, ISIS hacked into the channel’s website and posted threats to its staff. As a self-perceived moderate and a liberal, “I was the first target for them,” Aboud claims now.

Orient TV這些日子來最懼怕的對手不是敘利亞政府，而是伊斯蘭國。這個極端的團體目前脅持了5名Orient TV的員工安置在未知的據點，而且電視台的設備不斷成為攻擊的目標。2013年的2月，伊斯蘭國駭進電視台的網站，並恐嚇它的員工。身為一個溫和的自由派，「我是他們的首位目標」，Aboud這麼認為。

Orient TV has not called for violence or condoned atrocities. In fact, on this day, Aboud denounces calls by a rebel groups to burn ISIS members at the stake. “This is just another version of ISIS,” he says.

Orient TV並不是要求訴諸暴力以解決問題。事實上，這一天，Aboud指責自稱是反對派團體燒死伊斯蘭國成員的事件。「這只不過是另一個伊斯蘭國的翻版」，他說道。

Yet after so many years of the media dehumanizing the enemy, all ISIS had to do was take the narrative to its apocalyptic extreme. The uprising wasn’t just a battle but a full-on religious war between a legitimate Sunni majority and a heretical Shia- and minority-backed regime, they said. The stakes were no longer local but existential: good or evil, redemption or hell.

的確，媒體經過這麼多年後，也讓敵人失去人性，伊斯蘭國做的僅是按照那不合情理的神諭。這一切突顯的不只是個戰爭，而是多數遜尼派、旁門左道的什葉派，及一些少數派系的宗教戰爭。這已經不再是一個國家的內戰，而是跟人類存在有關：善良或是邪惡，救贖或是下地獄。

Like the one before it, the ISIS revolution has been broadcast. No videos have traveled further or gotten more hits during the conflict than ISIS’s beheading films. No recruitment pitches have looped the globe like those of the extremist group. Incredibly, this has happened amid the same landscape of citizen journalism once vaunted as the new democratic wave. “ISIS doesn’t have official disseminators who tweet in its name,” says Charlie Winter, author of a Quilliam Foundation studyon ISIS propaganda. “It’s spread by supporters of ISIS—but they are not employed to do it. …It’s quite a colossal messaging system we’re up against.”

在之前，伊斯蘭國的革命就曾被媒體報導過，在衝突爆發期間，沒有任何的影片比得過伊斯蘭國的砍頭影片。放眼全球，沒有一個組織像伊斯蘭國這麼極端，諷刺的是，這和公民新聞被視為民主的新浪潮，是發生在同一個時期。「伊斯蘭國沒有專人負責Tweeter」，英國智庫「奎利聯基金會」（Quilliam Foundation）專門研究伊斯蘭國宣傳活動的作家Charlie Winter說。「這是由伊斯蘭國的支持者所分享出去的，但他們並沒有被雇用去這麼做，所以我們面對的是相當龐大的訊息傳遞組織。」

Indeed, the irony of so much media is that these days the truth is harder than ever to find. Once, authoritarian Syria was a closed book. Today virtually every village and town can broadcast directly to satellite TV, and yet we are little better informed about the daily struggles of the civilians trapped there.

即使現在有這麼多的媒體，但真相卻愈來愈難得到。曾經，實行獨裁統治的敘利亞像是一本被關起來的書；現在，每個鄉村和城鎮都可以接收衛星訊號，而我們卻只能眼睜睜的看著他們陷入困境。

The noise serves the extremes all too well. No one will out-shout ISIS, whose violence is deafening. The regime, meanwhile, is content to use a “confusion strategy” to save itself, according to a recent Legatum Institute report on government propaganda. Amid a sea of half-truths and heated spin, even the most credible allegations of Assad’s misdeeds end up seeming like just “more noise in the din,” author and journalist Abigail Fielding-Smith writes.

這種雜音配上這樣的極端的現況，是再剛好也不過，沒有人能撼動伊斯蘭國，它的暴力是震耳欲聾的。根據英國列格坦研究所（Legatum Institute）所進行的國家宣傳手法的研究，指出執政當局使用「混淆的策略」來挽回自己名聲。擁有作家及記者身分的Abigail Fielding-Smith寫道，Assad所做的一切都像是欲蓋彌彰，好比在一片汪洋之中，片面真理不斷的加熱翻滾，卻沒有人知道背後的真相究竟是如何。

These days, the media war is only ratcheting up—an ominous indication for the conflict itself. Syria is facing four battles, Aboud predicts: military, political, intellectual, and developmental. In his view, both ISIS and the regime will have to be defeated on all counts, a task Orient TV now sees as its mission.

這些日子來，媒體戰爭愈演愈烈，一切都因衝突而起。敘利亞目前面臨四種戰爭，Aboud預測：軍事的、政治的、智識的和發展主義的。就他的觀點，伊斯蘭國和執政當局最終都會垮台，這是Orient TV現在的任務。

Syria’s media war原文網址：http://www.cjr.org/analysis/syria_media_war.php

作者：Elizabeth Dickinson

編譯：朱弘川