Idlib: Battle on the Ground, Battle on the Airwaves | The Listening Post (Full)

On The Listening Post this week: Turkish and Russian media put their own spin on the battle in Idlib. Plus, travel vloggers with special access in Pakistan.

Idlib: Battle on the Ground, Battle on the Airwaves
It was a bilateral meeting that came at a tense time. But it resulted in a ceasefire in Syria – specifically in Idlib in the northwest. Neither of the two leaders in front of the cameras, however, were Syrian.

There was the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the media battle to shape global perceptions, Russia has Sputnik – a state-owned news outlet operating in Turkish amongst other languages.

Turkey has TRT World, the state-owned broadcaster with its own story to tell. This conflict – given its various proxy players and objectives – has never been easy for outsiders to understand.

And the news now coming out of Turkey and Russia – and the competing narratives – are not helping.

Contributors:

Ragip Soylu – Turkey correspondent, Middle East Eye

Mahir Boztepe – Editor-in-chief, Sputnik Turkiye

Yusuf Erim – Editor-at-large, TRT World

Ilya Yablokov – Lecturer, Leeds University

On our radar:
Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Nic Muirhead about the “infodemic” of misinformation regarding coronavirus that is going viral on social media.

Pakistan’s New Look: The foreign vloggers rebranding the country online
Travel vlogging; a sub-genre of social media that generates millions of dollars through billions of clicks, and for some of the countries visited, provides a golden PR opportunity.

For instance, take Pakistan, a country desperate to shed its image as too dangerous for tourists. Enter the influencers; if you subscribe to vloggers like Rosie Gabrielle, Jordan Taylor and Eva zu Beck, you will have seen a very different side of Pakistan.

A lot of this content comes with the approval of a government out to capitalise on the PR potential – photogenic white visitors with huge online audiences.

The Listening Post’s Meenakshi Ravi tells the story behind Pakistan’s social media makeover.

Contributors:

Ahmer Naqvi – Karachi-based cultural critic

Aneeqa Ali – Lahore-based travel agent

Eva zu Beck – Travel vlogger

Syed Zulfikar Bukhari – Chairman, National Tourism Coordination Board

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In This Story: Pakistan

Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It has a population exceeding 212.2 million, including the world’s second-largest Muslim population. It has an area of 881,913 square kilometres (340,509 square miles).

Pakistan has a 1,046-kilometre (650-mile) coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, and China to the northeast. It is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor in the northwest, and also shares a maritime border with Oman.

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Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and a former officer of the KGB who has served as President of Russia since 2012, previously holding the position from 1999 until 2008. He was also the Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012.

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In This Story: Russia

Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the south.

Russia spans more than one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area, stretching eleven time zones, and bordering 16 sovereign nations. Moscow is the country’s capital.

The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 and since 1993 Russia been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. Russia is a major great power, with the world’s second-most powerful military, and the fourth-highest military expenditure. As a recognised nuclear-weapon state, the country possesses the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.

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In This Story: Syria

Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon to the southwest, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.

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In This Story: Turkey

Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeastern Europe.

Istanbul, which straddles Europe and Asia, is the country’s largest city, while Ankara is the capital. The majority of the population identifies as Turkish, around 20% identify as Kurdish.

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