CNN Chief Mark Thompson Reflects On Syrian Prisoner Report Storm: “We Want Critical Audiences”​on May 7, 2025 at 4:04 pm

CNN chief Mark Thompson said Wednesday that he welcomes audience criticism following controversy over the network being misled by a man who was freed from a Syrian prison last year.

Speaking at the Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Summit in London, the former New York Times boss addressed the storm over Clarissa Ward’s December report, purporting to show a civilian being freed from incarceration under Bashar al-Assad’s regime. CNN later reported that the man served as a lieutenant in the Assad’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate.

Thompson said it was important to speak with “honesty and candor about the frailties of news” during a panel discussion titled “Rebooting Legacy Media.” He added: “I don’t think we want trusting audiences. We want critical audiences, and we want to acknowledge that their desire to question, interrogate, and challenge are positive things, not negative.”

Ward’s reporting went viral after she was filmed reassuring the prisoner, repeatedly telling him that he was “ok” as he clutched her arm. She then offered him water before bringing him out into the daylight. “Oh God, there is light,” he is captured saying. The prisoner said he was Adel Ghurbal from the central Syrian city of Homs, but was later identified as Salama Mohammad Salama.

“It’s unclear how or why Salama ended up in the Damascus jail, and CNN has not been able to reestablish contact with him,” CNN said in a follow-up report.

Following the Ward report, CNN carried the following disclaimer on air: “Since this report was published, CNN has continued to look into the background of the prisoner freed by the rebels. According to local residents in Syria, he was a former intelligence officer with the deposed Assad regime.”