.jpg)
By Karlos Zurutuza:
Dear Editorial Staff,
I would like to publicly apologize to Mr Massoud Hamid for claiming that he wrote this statement which Reporters Without Borders published on 1 May.
In a previous letter, I identified Mr Hamid as the author of the statement, which deals with alleged abuses against Syrian news providers in areas controlled by the Democratic Union Party (PYD).
I had already read it when a source I shall not name forwarded me the link, adding that Mr Hamid was its author.
I had the pleasure to work with Mr Hamid last autumn. Thanks to his good access to opposition members, I published a long feature on Kurdish opposition movements inside Syrian Kurdistan (“An opposition within the opposition” http://msur.es/2013/11/14/kurdistan-siria-oposicion/).
Before I wrote my previous letter, I gave Mr Hamid a call to confirm that he was the person who wrote the report. His English is almost as poor as my French so I admit that, influenced by the email I had received, I thought he said, “I was the author” when he was actually saying he was not the author.
I received proof of my error in the form of a call from the head of RWB’s Middle East and North Africa Desk, Ms Soazig Dollet, assuring me that RWB, not Mr Hamid, was the author of the above-mentioned statement. “Massoud Hamid was not even informed that such a statement was in the pipeline,” Ms Dollet told me.
I hope this matter is now clear to everyone, and that Mr Hamid’s credibility has not been affected by my mistake and unprofessional behaviour.
This being said, I also want to underline that I do subscribe every each and single word I posted in my previous letter on my personal experience in Rojava.
Accordingly, I kindly request RSF to give further clarification on their controversial report. The dire scenario they depict is seemingly completely divergent from the one me and other fellow journalists on the ground have witnessed over the last years.
Sincerely,
Karlos Zurutuza
