NP: Syria, part 6

[jody2.718]

How did reporting on Syria change over the course of the seven years that you reported this story?

There were a lot of things that evolved over time. Syria ended up becoming, in some ways, the most documented conflict maybe in history. What changed over time was that we were able to build amazing networks, really on all sides of the conflict, where we could have unprecedented real-time access to people in places that we couldn’t physically reach.

But, at the same time, the physical access has waxed and waned. The government is very unpredictable about when and if it will give a visa to go to their side. We used to have a team inside the rebel-held territories all the time. And then that stopped when the bombing from the government got so intense and the risk of kidnapping increased. Then at some point the New York Times didn’t let people go anymore. Then it became possible to go sometimes into Kurdish-held areas, but not always.

So it’s really been a mixed bag in terms of access, but I also think that one thing that’s happened is that, certainly, over the last year, the interest in day-to-day coverage and even enterprise coverage has really decreased. And that’s one of the reasons I wanted to do this piece. Now, more than ever, it’s important to keep this in focus and not forget about it, as the world thinks that the war is over and they’re moving on and they’re even considering normalizing relations with this government. We have to know what it is that they’re normalizing with.

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Isaac Chotiner is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he is the principal contributor to Q. & A., a series of timely interviews with major public figures in politics, media, books, business, technology, and more

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