The Iraqi Army, with western military backing, is currently engaged in a fierce battle against the so-called Islamic State inside Iraq’s second biggest city, Mosul. And the United States is right now deciding how to try and defeat the group in its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa. Could 2017 see the end of the ‘Islamic State’ as a power in the Middle East? Or how might the group, and its supporters in the region and beyond, respond? For journalists, covering the Islamic State and the territory it controls has long been immensely difficult - and now it seems only more dangerous.
The panel speakers have unique experiences of reporting inside Iraq and Syria since 2011. How should the media understand the situation on the ground right now? What complexities in the picture are we failing to communicate to audiences?
