'Months into the revolution in Syria, for example, some of the Arab and international media started to alter the terminology used to describe the situation. Instead of referring to “revolutionaries” they started talking about the “armed opposition,” a term that may be thought to give some kind of legitimacy to the regime’s brutality as it equates the victims with the aggressor.
The term “Syrian Revolution” has also sometimes disappeared from the international press, having been replaced by the “conflict in Syria,” another demotion in the ongoing campaign for freedom in the country. On more than one occasion, the international media, whose reportage has often been quoted extensively in the local media, has depicted the battles in Syria as a sectarian conflict – thus demeaning the original goals of the revolution.
Neutrality, as much as it is needed in all reporting, has been twisted in this way, allowing the brutality of the regime to turn into a run-of-the-mill battle against rebels intent on bringing down the system by force instead of through the peaceful means of the ballot box.'
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