CNN launches investigation after Syrian prisoner rescue report faces intense scrutiny

CNN has launched an investigation into its reporting after facing intense scrutiny and allegations of staging a prisoner rescue video in Damascus following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Soon after the government was overthrown on December 8, scores of videos emerged of prisoners who were freed or rescued by the Syrian Civil Defence. 

Last week, CNN released a video of its chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward entering a secret prison in Damascus and rescuing a man lying under a blanket. 

In the segment, Ward was seen touring the detention site where countless civilians were tortured and beaten to death when her team seemingly stumbled upon a cell which was still locked.

After the door was opened by a guard, Ward and her team approached the man, identified by CNN as a rebel fighter who was still unaware of Assad’s ouster. They accompanied the man outside, comforting him and letting him know of the government’s fall.

The video went viral on social media, with many celebrating the “courageous” and “remarkable” reporting by the veteran journalist, while others claimed that it seemed to be staged. Countless social media users lampooned CNN’s story, comparing the footage to the many prisoner videos that came out of the notorious Sednaya prison and saying that the footage did not seem authentic.

CNN did not address the initial criticisms of the viral segment, or the controversy surrounding it, until the fact-checking organisation Verify-Sy made the claim that the prisoner in Ward’s report was a low-level Syrian intelligence official jailed for corruption and abuse charges.

In a report, Verify-Sy suggested that the man in the video, identified by CNN as Adel Gharbal from Homs, did not flinch or blink when gazing up at the sky, even though he allegedly had not seen the sunlight for over three months.

Verify-Sy’s report also added that the man identified as Gharbal “appeared clean, well-groomed, and physically healthy”, with no visible injuries or signs of torture despite it being ubiquitous in other videos of prisoner rescues after the fall of Assad.

Reports coming out of the notorious Sednaya prison, dubbed the “human slaughterhouse” for its brutality, and former prisoners describing torture and rape taking place there, cast further doubt on the video.

Verify-Sy’s report investigated the identity of the man in the footage and said that his real name is Salama Mohammad Salama. Salama, known as “Abu Hamza”, is reportedly a first lieutenant in Syrian Air Force Intelligence.

According to the report, residents of the Bayyada neighbourhood in Homs identified him as “frequently stationed at a checkpoint in the area’s western entrance, infamous for its abuses”.

This revelation by the fact-checking group was widely shared on social media, where many accused CNN of fabricating the report.

CNN’s investigation

In its statement, CNN said the segment accurately depicted the events that played out when Ward and her crew visited the prison. 

“The events transpired as they appear in our film. The decision to release the prisoner featured in our report was taken by the guard—a Syrian rebel. We reported the scene as it unfolded, including what the prisoner told us, with clear attribution,” a CNN spokesperson told the news outlet Daily Beast. 

But the spokesperson acknowledged that the man may have given a false identity, adding: “We have subsequently been investigating his background and are aware that he may have given a false identity. We are continuing our reporting into this and the wider story.”

Ward’s original tweet shared on X, which had the full footage of the alleged prisoner rescue, now has a community note added following the reports by Verify-Sy and CNN’s acknowledgement that there could be errors in the reporting. 

According to X, community notes aim to create a better-informed world by empowering users to collaboratively add context to potentially misleading posts.

A week after Assad’s government was overthrown, one of Syria’s top human rights organisations said around 100,000 missing people are almost certainly dead. 

The Syrian Network for Human Rights’ (SNHR) records show that approximately 136,000 people were either being detained or had been forcibly disappeared by the Assad government.

The organisation also said that since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution in March 2011, over 157,000 people were arrested or forcibly disappeared – including 5,274 children and 10,221 women. 

In the wake of the stories emerging from Assad’s prisons since he was ousted – such as the killing of Syrian activist Mazen al-Hamada who had given a harrowing account of his experience in the Sednaya prison – social media users thought CNN’s potentially erroneous reporting was disrespectful to the people who endured this suffering, and that the report was maligning the image of detainees.