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	German police reject Breitbart story of mob setting fire to Dortmund church by Agence France-Presse in Berlin, agencies Germany   German media and politicians have warned against an election-year spike in fake news after the rightwing website Breitbart claimed a mob chanting “Allahu Akbar” had set fire to a church in the city of Dortmund on New Year’s Eve.   After the report by the US site was widely shared on social media, the city’s police clarified that no “extraordinary or spectacular” incidents had marred the festivities.   The local newspaper, Ruhr Nachrichten, said elements of its online reporting on New Year’s Eve had been distorted by Breitbart to produce “fake news, hate and propaganda”.   The justice minister of Hesse state, Eva Kühne-Hörmann, said that “the danger is that these stories spread with incredible speed and take on lives of their own”.   Tens of thousands clicked and shared the Breitbart story with the headline “Revealed: 1,000-man mob attack police, set Germany’s oldest church alight on New Year’s Eve”.   It said the men had “chanted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), launched fireworks at police and set fire to a historic church”, while also massing “around the flag of al-Qaida and Islamic State collaborators the Free Syrian Army.”   The local newspaper said Breitbart had combined and exaggerated unconnected incidents to create a picture of chaos and of foreigners promoting terrorism.   Stray fireworks did start a small blaze, but only on netting covering scaffolding on the church and it was put out after about 12 minutes, the paper reported. The roof was not on fire and the church is not Germany’s oldest.   Dortmund police on Thursday said its officers had handled 185 missions that night, sharply down from 421 the previous year. The force’s leader judged the night as “rather average to quiet”, in part thanks to a large police presence.   The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily said Breitbart had used exaggerations and factual errors to create “an image of chaotic civil war-like conditions in Germany, caused by Islamist aggressors”.   It said the article “may be a foretaste” of what is to come before parliamentary elections expected in September as some websites spread “misinformation and distortion in order to diminish trust in established institutions”.   Justice minister Heiko Maas warned in mid-December that Germany would use its laws against deliberate disinformation and that freedom of expression did not protect “slander and defamation”.   Bild, Germany’s top-selling daily, also predicted trouble ahead – pointing to the fact that Breitbart’s former editor Steve Bannon had been appointed as US president-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategist.   It warned that Breitbart – which plans to launch German and French language sites – could seek to “aggravate the tense political climate in Germany”.   Dec. 2016   German companies pull advertising from US website Breitbart. (AP)   Several large German companies, including carmaker BMW, have pulled their ads from U.S.-based news and opinion website Breitbart due to concerns about its content, following a similar move by cereal maker Kellogg''s.   The German boycott was spurred by a social media campaign using the hashtag #KeinGeldFuerRechts , which translates as "No Money for the Right." The campaign urges companies to stop paying for ads on sites considered to promote racist and nationalist ideas.   Deutsche Telekom said it regretted advertising on Breitbart, saying the ads hadn''t been placed there intentionally and it would blacklist the site from future campaigns. The telecoms giant said it "absolutely doesn''t tolerate discriminatory actions or statements."   Supermarket group REWE, automaker BMW, Telefonica Deutschland, which is the mobile operator of O2, and restaurant chain Vapiano also told The Associated Press that they had stopped advertising on Breitbart and distanced themselves from the site.   "The positions held by Breitbart.com contrast with Vapiano''s values, such as openness and tolerance," the company said.   Breitbart reportedly plans to open sites in France and Germany soon. Germany, which is expected to hold a general election in September, introduced restrictions on free speech after World War II to prevent a revival of Nazi ideology.   http://business-humanrights.org/en/companies-denounce-rightwing-us-website-breitbart-after-criticism http://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/alternative-right http://www.salon.com/2017/01/30/trumps-rasputin-seizes-the-moment-a-week-of-chaos-may-suit-steve-bannons-master-plan/ http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/business/media/stephen-bannon-trump-news-media.html http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/what-it-means-to-live-in-a-breitbart-nation http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jeff-sessions-close-relationship-with-media-bright-spot-breitbart/ http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/steve-bannon-to-help-trump-bring-white-nationalism-misogyny-and-anti-semitism-to-the-white-house/ http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/top-trump-adviser-steve-bannon-cited-racist-anti-immigrant-book-in-radio-appearance/ http://billmoyers.com/story/america-meet-nigel-farage/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/bannons-war/ http://wapo.st/2rpD52O http://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/ethics-in-the-news Visit the related web page
	You probably won’t read this piece about Syria by Barry Malone Online editor at Al Jazeera English   March 2016   There''s something in her eyes. Something more than the bafflement you so often see in the faces of innocents victimised by the wars of others. It''s something that haunts. Something that reaches you most powerfully not in your mind, but somewhere more prosaic. In your guts. In your bones.   Her expression seems to plead directly. To ask of you, do you care? Do you see me?   When we saw this image, there was no other that seemed more apt to lead our website on March 15th, the day Syria entered its fifth year of misery and mayhem. Its fifth year of slaughter.   Several human rights groups, and many Syrians, had a powerful accusation to make that day. The world, they said, had failed the country and her people. The world didn''t care anymore.   The twisted steal the attention. And the people we should pay attention to fade into the background, bit players in a narrative wrongly and unfairly dominated by the grotesque.   Sometimes journalism itself feels like a fight to get people to care.   And as often, maybe more often, it''s a fight to get yourself to. Every day, the media deals in stories of death and devastation and despair. Too often, it feels like work, just there to be processed. A day''s pay to be earned.   But we have a duty. Because these are other people''s stories. And they deserve to have them heard.   On the anniversary, we published a lot of content. There were stirring documentaries, powerful polemics, Syrian paintings, infographics, analysis, interviews, features and news. There was streaming TV. We tried to take our audience into the lives of those caught up in this.   And all of it was fronted with the bloodied woman, that gaze taking up most of the screen.   But the number of people who came to our site that day was far lower than expected. As we watched the analytics, tracked our traffic, that stinging accusation of apathy seemed justified.   There are variables, of course. Anniversaries don''t tend to grab the imagination, some people may prefer other news organisations for Syria reporting, and perhaps our work wasn''t what it could be.   Then there''s fatigue. It''s been a rough few years for the world. Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Libya, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ukraine, Somalia and more. Dark stories dominate.   I have never heard so many journalists say that the job is grinding them down nor so many people who watch the news say that they cannot stand to do so anymore. Bearing witness is gruelling.   We have seen a stagnation in traffic to our Syria conflict stories since 2012 with intermittent peaks when it makes headlines - Assad says something unusual, the possibility of Western missiles.   Recently, there have been occasional spikes but they appear mostly related to ISIL. The taking of Fallujah, the fall of Mosul, the detestable beheadings, and the sledgehammering of history.   The twisted steal the attention. And the people we should pay attention to fade into the background, bit players in a narrative wrongly and unfairly dominated by the grotesque.   We find that stories about the suffocating grind and everyday hardship of war don''t do as well. Stories about the almost four million Syrians who have been forced to flee their country, the same.   When we tweeted the accusation that the world didn''t care, many people retweeted it. But most didn''t click the link to read our stories. Perhaps they wanted to be seen to care. Perhaps they believed that people should care. But they didn''t care enough to read what we had written. That''s a shame.   Because this was an opportunity to take stock. To stand back. To reflect on the fact that more than 220,000 people have been killed and half a country''s population pushed from their homes. To ask the Syrian people what they need from us. To pressure our governments to take them in.   Our indifference is something we need to think about and talk about. As journalists, we should question our performance. As people, our humanity. Because we can do better.   And that woman in the photograph should know that we see her. Visit the related web page
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