From the Guardian: Why did everyone forget about Syria when Gaza started? [View all]

[iandhr]

It's a truism that news organisations and audiences alike struggle to cope with more than one major international crisis at a time: if the war in Gaza wasn't a big enough story, then the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine was almost unbearable overload. But what about Syria, where 1,700 people are reported to have died in the last 10 days alone?

The uprising against Bashar al-Assad has been the biggest and longest story of what used to be known as the "Arab spring". Recently the tide of the war has turned, due to government military successes, rebel disarray, the rise of Isis jihadis in both Syria and Iraq … and persistent and crippling international divisions.

Reporting on it is difficult: Syrian visas for journalists are sporadic and access is strictly controlled. Reporting from the rebel side via Turkey is extremely dangerous. It is much easier to get into besieged Gaza, where most international news organisations are now represented. Financial and human resources are stretched.

Syria's latest toll includes 700 killed in just two days in the Homs area, and hundreds more in fighting against Isis around the oil fields of Deir al-Zor. For anyone who wants to play a macabre numbers game, the overall figures are still a smaller proportion than 800 Palestinian deaths out of a Gaza population of 1.8m.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/25/forget-syria-gaza-media-audience-wars