Syrian journalist Hadi al-Khatib, the founder of an archive documenting the Syrian revolution, joined the list of the top 100 emerging leaders in the world, issued by the American Time Magazine.
Khatib is the only Syrian who made the list, which included three Arabs. The other two names are Egyptian Nadine Ashraf and Emirati Sarah Al Amiri.
The list includes young leaders who are shaping the future of health, politics, business, arts, space sciences, and more, and is made up of 100 figures divided into five categories: Artists, Advocates, Leaders, Phenoms, Innovators, and Activists.
Khatib has been working since the early years of the revolution on digitally collecting and archiving of war crimes and human rights violations in Syria. He has collected more than 3.5 million videos to date.
He also documented, in his workplace in Germany, more than 8,000 video clips depicting attacks on medical facilities, bombing with barrel bombs, and other war crimes committed by the regime, Russia, and Iran against the Syrian people.
Time magazine quoted Khatib as saying that “change begins with accountability, but what has been proven in Syria is that accountability is far-fetched, as Bashar al-Assad silenced the media, while social networking sites took down photos and videos that documented the atrocities in the country under the pretext of violating their publishing policies.”
According to the Time Magazine, “that is why Khatib established Syrian Archive in 2014, which is an open-source digital archive that journalists, human rights defenders, and activists can benefit from.”
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
