Syrian “Gay Girl” Blog a Wake-Up Call

Journalists trained to answer the five W’s for every news story—who, what, when, where, why—will surely be examining the first one with more scrutiny, thanks to a “Gay Girl in Damascus.”

That is the title of a blog supposedly written by 25-year-old Syrian lesbian "Amina Arraf," who described playing a role in the growing antigovernment protests and outlined criticisms of President Bashar al-Assad. On Sunday, the blog’s real author put up a post acknowledging that he made up a fictitious character in order to have a strong voice and make up for news organizations’ “superficial coverage” of events in the Middle East.

Turns out "Arraf" was really an American student studying at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland named Tom MacMaster, who is 40 and married. An alleged photo of the fake blogger sent to the Guardian was revealed as another news hoax: It was lifted from the Facebook account of a British-Croatian woman who lived in London.

The blog, which first appeared in February, gradually took off to the point that the girl was considered a heroine as tensions rose in Syria. The whole thing began to unravel after a blog post last Monday stated that Syrian security forces had kidnapped the alleged author. Her “cousin” supposedly wrote the blog in Arraf’s absence. The Washington Post ran a story Sunday outlining the hoax after the Wall Street Journal reported that the photo of Arraf was a fake, and an NPR reporter found out that no one seemed to have actually met the writer.

Among the other news agencies that acknowledged being duped into thinking the blog was real was the BBC. Campaigners and gay activists in Syria, who launched a campaign for Arraf's release, reacted furiously to the news.

As the Washington Post points out, there's an implication for journalists too.

The hoax raises difficult questions about the reliance on blogs, tweets, Facebook postings and other Internet communications as they increasingly become a standard way to report on global events. Information from online sources has become particularly important in coverage of the Middle East uprisings, especially in countries that severely restrict foreign media—or that use social media against protesters.

On the blog, MacMaster issued an “apology to readers.”

“While the narrative voice may have been fictional, the facts on thıs blog are true and not mısleading as to the situation on the ground,” MacMaster wrote. “I do not believe that I have harmed anyone—I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about.”

He might feel strongly about the issues, but MacMaster has now lost credibility. And while there’s some egg on the faces of the news agencies who relied on the blog as a source, a lesson has been learned too.

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Teresa Novellino writes for Portfolio.com