BBC journalist deletes tweet about “staged” scenes in Syria

Riam Dalati, a BBC journalist, took to Twitter to express suspicion about an alleged chemical attack in Syria. Dalati wrote that he was tired of “scenes” in Syria that were “staged” for Western consumption.

“Sick and tired of activists and rebels using corpses of dead children to stage emotive scenes for Western consumption. Then they wonder why some serious journos are questioning part of the narrative,” he had tweeted.

However, the BBC Foreign News Producer deleted his tweet later. Dalati clarified that his tweet was deleted as it was in breach of editorial policy. He also stated that the tweet did not give context to the pictures attached.

Not so & thank u 4 asking me. Original tweet correctly deemed in breach of editorial policy thru use of ‘sick/tired’ & failure in providing ‘Last Hug’ photo with > context.
Still stand by original opinion that ‘Last Hug’ was staged and can voice that in factual tweet if I want to https://t.co/A6xvUIgQ06

— Riam Dalati (@Dalatrm) April 10, 2018

An apparent chemical attack was reported in Douma, a suburb of Damascus, on Saturday with about 5oo people showing symptoms consistent with a chemical attack, The New York Times reported. About 70 people died, of them, 43 had shown signs of being exposed to “highly toxic chemicals”. However, the injuries and deaths being the result of a chemical attack are yet to be confirmed. The Syrian state media has denied any use of chemical weapons.