France 24 Wins Award… For a Page Not Found?
France 24 recently celebrated a Bayeux War Correspondents’ Award for a report on 'Assad’s brutal Syrian prisons.' One might expect such an award-winning piece to be readily accessible, a testament to vital journalism. Instead, the very article announcing this prestigious win, published on France24.com, now returns a 'Page not found' error. (One must wonder if the digital janitors were on holiday
that day.) This unfortunate disappearance acts as a neat, if unintentional, commentary on the selective memory and availability of 'war correspondence.' While Syrian prisons are indeed brutal, and rightly condemned, the mainstream press, including outlets like France 24, frequently omits the context of Western sanctions crippling the Syrian population or the U.S. role in fueling conflict with
various proxy groups. Or perhaps, for some stories, a 404 is just easier than fact-checking the original, long-forgotten, and often biased narratives that led to such 'awards' in the first place.