154 Voice for Rebellion and Relief I responded to a Facebook post that was asking for someone to translate some news of what was happening on the ground, and I responded; they invited me to join the translation team. This was back before every news bureau had a correspondent either on the ground or near Syria. When the LCC spokesperson left to do other things, they asked me to take on that job, so I did. [In addition] to posting on YouTube and Facebook, we developed an impressive media list. There was an email service that went out, and the daily summary of the death toll, the destruction. We posted everything to the LCC’s Facebook page where we uploaded videos. Anybody who wanted to receive the news had access. Our goal was to make sure that the average reader or listener had access to information about what was happening on the ground. It was very important to us – and it still is – that events in Syria don’t go unnoticed. Activists likewise served as informal representatives in the media by holding press conferences, giving interviews, and helping the revolution with its public relations. Malik, co-founder of the Syrian Justice and Development Party, recalled being catapulted into the position of unofficial spokesperson for the revolution from London. After the protests [first] happened, [a journalist] called me straight away and got me an interview on Sky News, and that was the start of probably hundreds of interviews. I’m not exaggerating. Everyone from BBC World, BBC News, ITN, Channel 4 News, CNN, you name it, all wanted someone who speaks English and who can put some context. So I was kind of like a de facto spokesman for the opposition even though I never had any kind of official role. Similarly, Haytham represented the anti-regime cause from Manchester by giving the media information and testifying about his experiences as a former political prisoner. We addressed the media [by] responding to their requests. When they needed somebody to talk about refugees, to talk about the peace conference in Geneva, they call us. We are one of the resources to talk about the Syrian cause. Second, we advocate the Syrian cause doing work with ordinary people. We go to places like mosques, churches, universities. About twenty times we have given a talk called “Voices from Syria.” The first [part] is about the situation in Syria, the political situation before the revolution, why the revolution happened, what was the response of the regime. I [also] give my personal story – why they imprisoned me, what happened to me in prison. A. A., a youth from Michigan, worked as a volunteer for the Shaam News Network, which was founded by Bilal Attar (Conduit 2019) to act as a global network of citizen journalists and volunteers dedicated to promoting international publicity. We were contacting [American] news channels urging them to cover demonstrations back home in Syria. All of this was done under the Syrian American Council. A couple of months later, through some connections of Syrian friends here [in Michigan], I started working with Shaam News Network, which is a news channel run [from Syria] using social media websites. It’s one of the sources that the media here in the US and international media used to start covering what’s happening in Syria. The media used a lot of the materials that https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009272148 Published online by Cambridge University Press