Sharri Markson Goes Rogue On Press Trip, Puts Syrian War Victims At Risk

The Australian journalist Sharri Markson was detained during a visit to an Israeli hospital after failing to comply with strict rules laid down to protect the safety of the Syrian patients.

She, along with seven other Aussie journalists touring the Ziv Medical Centre, near the Syrian border, were explicitly warned beforehand that identifying the Syrian patients – many of whom had been wounded fighting the Assad regime – could put them in serious danger when they returned to their country. (The hospital goes to great lengths to smuggle them in and out.)

That meant: no names, no photos, no nothing. So what does Markson do? Break away from the group, find a couple Syrian fighters, and take down their email addresses. 

Security forces swiftly detained Markson and forced her to delete their contact details, in a “major commotion” that was “very intense and dramatic,” according to a Fairfax source. They report that the chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Vic Alhadeff swiftly intervened, and all was resolved.

“Our paramount concern was for the safety and security of the Syrian patients,” he said. “In that regard, we are very mindful of not disclosing their identity.”

Australian/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein, who also organised (but was not on) the trip, said the guidelines were very clear: “The condition of visiting the hospital is to respect and maintain the confidentiality of the patients’ identities. If anyone’s identity was disclosed it would put them at great risk – it’s a brutal part of the world.”

Sharri offered these tweets by way of explanation:

The Syrian fighters took my details to keep in touch with a journalist when they return to Syria, where they’re at war with Assad and Daesh.

— Sharri Markson (@SharriMarkson) November 22, 2015

The Syrian fighters gave me theirs too. Israeli security were a bit heavy-handed, demanding I delete the details from my phone and notebook.

— Sharri Markson (@SharriMarkson) November 22, 2015

Look, Sharri’s got a rep breaking ethical codes and going to any length to ~ get the story ~.

After the London bombings she blagged her way into a hospital where victims were being treated by pretending to be a visitor (she carrying flowers and fake crying), and while she was editor of Cleo, she went dumpster-diving through Cosmo‘s bins looking for sex tips scoops.

Anything for the story, right?

Image: Twitter.

via Fairfax.