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The Indicter

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The Indicter, established in Sweden 2005, is an online monthly magazine published in English. It focuses on geopolitics and human rights issues and its editorial line is liberal to left-wing. Material published by The Indicter has been the subject of international controversy; in 2017 it published an analysis which became an official document at the UN Security Council.

Its mission statement says The Indicter aspires to "denounce war crimes, human rights abuses, and state assaults on privacy and civil liberties".[1] The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter describes The Indicter as a publication associated with the NGO Swedish Doctors for Human Rights (SWEDHR).[2] However, Sources[3] notes that the monthly magazine's legal publisher is the Swedish company Libertarian Books Europe.[4]

Numerous articles published by The Indicter and its predecessor, the Professor's Blog,[5] were reproduced through WikiLeaks' social media between 2010-2018. However, some of the magazine's analyses have been critically addressed in a number of European mainstream media outlets including Der Spiegel,[6] Le Figaro,[7] France 24,[8] Liberation,[9] and HuffPost,[10] in addition to Swedish news sites.

The magazine reached half a million viewers in December 2020, according to Jetpack stats reproduced in the journal (statistics starting April 2016).[1] The Indicter was founded by Marcello Ferrada de Noli, a social libertarian.[11]

Controversies

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In 2017 The Indicter published a series of articles challenging the forensic medical evidence about an alleged gas attack in Sarmin, 2015,[12] that had been presented at the United Nations by Syrian doctors who opposed the Assad government.[13] After the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, referred to The Indicter's report at a Security Council session in April 12, 2017,[14][15] the magazine became a target of criticism by several Western mainstream media outlets, including the Swedish outlets Dagens Nyheter and Expressen.[16] Swedish media also attacked The Indicter for being mentioned by the Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Maria Zakharova, in a press conference aired 16 March 2017.[17][18] Maria Zakharova also posted a tweet with an image reproducing The Indicter logo.[19] According to Dagens Nyheter, the Russian envoy to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Mikhail Uljanov, used a report published in The Indicter April 2017 to question claims by the Syrian opposition regarding the Syrian government's responsibility for the Khan Sheikhoun gas attack.[20]

Some of the findings of the above mentioned investigation published in The Indicter were challenged by Coda Media's site, Coda Story.[21] The Indicter validated these anew and extended an invitation to Coda Story to publicly debate the issue.[22][23] Coda Story failed to reply.

Swedish media reported that Marcello Ferrada de Noli, publishing his findings in The Indicter, had analysed the OPCW report following the claim of a chemical weapons attack in Syria. After request by the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, the UN Secretary General approved the inclusion of The Indicter article as official document of the Security Council in February 2018.[24]

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Editorial Board". The Indicter. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  2. ^ "Gasattacker förnekas med hjälp från svensk läkargrupp". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). 2017-04-21. ISSN 1101-2447. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  3. ^ "Sources (site web)", Wikipédia (in French), 2021-01-31, retrieved 2021-12-06
  4. ^ "The Indicter - Media Names & Numbers 2020". www.sources.com. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  5. ^ "The Professors' Blog – Science, Culture & Human Rights For All – It is now The Indicter magazine (Nov 2015)". Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  6. ^ Reuter, Christoph (2017-12-21). "Syrien: Russlands Feldzug gegen die Wahrheit". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  7. ^ "En Russie, une curieuse thèse reprise pour exonérer Damas". LEFIGARO (in French). 2017-04-13. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  8. ^ "White Helmets 'staging fake attacks' in Syria? We sort fact from fiction". The Observers - France 24. 2018-05-14. Retrieved 2021-12-08.
  9. ^ Kodmani, Hala. "Russia Today, Sputnik… un mois d'intox passé au crible". Libération (in French). Retrieved 2021-12-08.
  10. ^ "The 'Useful Idiots': How These British Academics Helped Russia Deny War Crimes At The UN". HuffPost UK. 2020-01-29. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  11. ^ "Replik från SWEDHR på Patrik Oksanens krönika". www.expressen.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  12. ^ "White Helmets Video: Swedish Doctors for Human Rights Denounce Medical Malpractice and 'Misuse' of Children for Propaganda Aims". The Indicter. Retrieved 2021-12-08.
  13. ^ "UN officials in tears watching video from alleged chlorine attack in Syria - National | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  14. ^ "Svensk grupp i rysk propaganda om giftattacken på spion". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). 2018-04-02. ISSN 1101-2447. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  15. ^ "The situation in the Middle East" (PDF).
  16. ^ "Linda Jerneck: Akademikerna som tvättar blodet från Assadregimen". www.expressen.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  17. ^ "OK". m.ok.ru. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  18. ^ M. Zakharova on SWEDHR's analysis of White-Helmets videos in The Indicter, retrieved 2021-12-06
  19. ^ @mfa_russia (March 16, 2017). "#Zakharova: We would like the public to take note..." (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved 2023-05-09 – via Twitter.
  20. ^ "Svensk läkargrupp: Bluff om gasattacker". DN.SE (in Swedish). 2017-04-22. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  21. ^ "Russia Used a Two-Year-Old Video and an 'Alternative' Swedish Group to Discredit Reports of Syria Gas Attack". Coda Story. 2017-05-02. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  22. ^ "Refuting the Coda Story's narrative on Swedish Doctors for Human Rights". The Indicter. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  23. ^ "Interference by journalists on sovereign opinions of professors, academics, and independent researchers, comprise infringements to Art 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights". The Indicter. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  24. ^ United Nations Security Council, 15 February 2018. Document A/72/652–S/2017/1010
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