"It is a sad commentary on Western "freedom of the press" if we in Europe must rely on newspapers published elsewhere..."

"Sir, Let me commend you for publishing, in your January 5 edition, the excellent report by Aisling Byrne entitled A mistaken case for Syrian regime change [Jan 5, 2012]. 

While Western mainstream media tirelessly expound, in unison, a surreal narrative of events in Syria - in which regime troops ruthlessly massacre unarmed civilian protesters representing the entire population (yet even opposition forces admit, in their blogs, increasing casualties among the regime troops and large pro-regime demonstrations in the streets of Damascus!) - your report clearly exposes what is going on behind the scenes : Western skullduggery in exploiting the divisions in Syrian society and fomenting (and arming) one side against the other, in the hope of creating a pretext for Libyan-like foreign military intervention. 

It is a sad commentary on Western "freedom of the press" if we in Europe must rely on newspapers published elsewhere to get at least a glimpse of what our own governments are doing abroad. 

But such, apparently, is the case regarding events in Syria and I therefore thank you for enabling Ms Byrne's report to come to my attention.

Patrick Boylan

Chair of English

School of Humanities

University of Rome III

Rome, Italy