CNN has made the news for publishing what fact-checking organisation Verify-Sy says is a staged story of a Syrian prisoner gaining freedom after allegedly enduring jail time under the now-fallen government of Bashar al-Assad. International correspondent Clarissa Ward claimed to have witnessed the release of the man, who Verify-Sy says is Salama Mohammad Salama, an alleged extortionist and thief who worked in Syrian Air Force intelligence.
While CNN can mislead its global audience with a staged story, other media, like African Stream, are banned for publishing factual reports that challenge those in power. In September, tech giants Meta, Alphabet, TikTok and Stripe deleted our accounts after we published a story about how all US presidents since George W Bush have bombed Somalia.
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