Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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The news office is run from his home in [[Coventry]] by Rami Abdulrahman (sometimes referred to as Rami Abdul Rahman), a Syrian [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] Muslim who owns a clothes shop. Born Osama Suleiman, he adopted a pseudonym during his years of activism in Syria, and has used it publicly ever since.<ref name =NYT>{{cite news|title=A Very Busy Man Behind the Syrian Civil War’s Casualty Count|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/world/middleeast/the-man-behind-the-casualty-figures-in-syria.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|publisher=[[New York Times]]|date=9 April 2013|accessdate=31 May 2013}}</ref> After being imprisoned three times in Syria, Abdulrahman fled to the United Kingdom fearing a fourth jail term and has not returned since.<ref name=Reuters/>

In a December 2011 interview with Reuters,<ref name=Reuters/> Abdulrahman said the observatory has a network of more than 200 people and that six of his sources had been killed. In April 2013, ''[[The New York Times]]'' described him being on the phone all day every day with contacts in Syria, and checking all information himself.<ref name=NYT/> At high link popularity of the project in the media and the use of numbers of victims in the justification of political decisions at times expressed doubts about the reliability and fairness of the source, which is represented by one person without special training and experience, referring to them undisclosed network of activists in Syria.<ref>https://russian.rt.com/article/121737</ref><ref>http://www.inopressa.ru/article/27nov2012/sueddeutsche/syria_hr.html</ref>

SOHR has been accused of selective reporting, covering only violent acts of the government forces against the opposition for the first two years of its existence<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Massacres by Islamic extremists bolster Bashar al-Assad |url=http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Massacres-by-Islamic-extremists-bolster-Bashar-al-Assad-28219.html |newspaper=[[AsiaNews]] |location= |date=17 June 2013 |access-date=8 July 2013}}</ref> and reporting militant anti government fighters in dead civilians tolls,<ref>[http://www.mepc.org/journal/middle-east-policy-archives/syria-contextualized-numbers-game Syria Contextualized. By Musa al-Gharbi Middle East Policy Council Spring 2013, Volume XX, Number 1]</ref> and has been described as being "pro-opposition".<ref>{{cite news|title=Report: Almost 6,000 Dead in Syria During Geneva Talks|url=http://world.time.com/2014/02/17/report-almost-6000-dead-in-syria-during-geneva-talks/|agency=TIME Magazine|date=17 February 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Syrian civil war: Jabhat al-Nusra's massacre of Druze villagers shows they're just as nasty as Isis|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/syrian-civil-war-jabhat-al-nusras-massacre-of-druze-villagers-shows-the-group-is-just-as-nasty-as-10318348.html|agency=Independent|date=13 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Syrian opposition group accuses rebel unit of torture|url=http://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-crisis-torture-idUSBRE9380VI20130409|agency=Reuters|date=9 April 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Syrian rebels 'killed in army ambush near Damascus'|url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-23600612|agency=BBC|date=7 August 2013}}</ref>