ISIS reporter tells judiciary about group’s media methodology
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency’s logo
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A reporter working for the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s media body and held in custody has told the judicial authority details about the cunning methods the extremist group has adopted in its media propaganda.
The reporter, nicknamed Abu Saleh, who works for Amaq News Agency, told the media center of the Federal Judicial Authority that he used to obtain his information from the commanders of the group’s troops on the field, adding that those used to update him on developments on the battlefield.
He said that the agency used to “inflate” the outcome of ISIS attacks on security locations, adding that “news at Amaq Agency have taken an exaggerative path.”
“I once submitted a piece of news about an attack on a military watch tower, but it was later rewritten and published as a major attack on a military barrack in Baghdad,” said the reporter. He added that he warned the media official at the division he reported from that exaggeration would damage the group’s credibility before the public, but was told that such exaggeration was necessary to raise the fighters’ spirits and to give an impression of control.
Abu Saleh added that the agency’s focus is currently on the situation in Baghdad to divert attention away from defeats on other fronts.
“Reports are made on attack on military troops inside the capital, no matter how small in scale,” he said, attributing that to “ISIS’s desire to cover up defeats in northern and western provinces.”
Abu Saleh revealed he had received high-end cameras this year to film fruit plantations inside the capital. “The movies were posted with the caption ‘crops at the Islamic State’s state of Baghdad,” he said, explaining that it meant to give the impression that the group had a presence at the capital, though, in fact, filming was made secretly away from civilians’ eyes.
He added that news are revised on the grammatical and journalistic levels, and that only movie clips with high quality are allowed so as to be suitable for publication throughout world media outlets.