For Syrian activists, YouTube is a sword and shield - CNN.com

For Syrian activists, YouTube is a sword and shield - CNN.com: Syrian forces stormed the town of Douma this week, fired at the home of activist Mahmoud Saab, wounded the father of two and then hanged him from a balcony.


clip from article:Videos of demonstrations, clashes and security actions have marked the Syrian uprising as a YouTube revolt. The images have framed the conflict for other Syrians, the wider world and history since the government has blocked journalists from freely covering the story.

"Social media became a powerful tool in getting the word out." said Rafif Jouejati, spokeswoman for the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria, or LCC, citing the ferment during the Arab Spring.

"The Egyptian revolution became a Facebook revolution."

After the Syrian uprising started last spring, activists soon realized immediately that their revolution needed video documentation to make their fight credible to the world.

There was no Internet in 1982, when the government of Hafez Assad, the current ruler's late father, conducted a bloody offensive in the city of Hama, she said. [read more at link]