Eva Karene Bartlett is a Canadian activist and blogger who is known for promoting conspiracy theories about Syria. She writes op-eds for the television networkRT. Bartlett describes herself as an "independent writer and rights activist." Critics contend that her advocacy amounts to support for the Assad regime, and she has promoted the falsehood that the White Helmets stage rescues and "recycle" children in its videos.
Early life
Bartlett was born in the U.S. and grew up in Canada. She taught English in South Korea after finishing university.
Career
In her early blogging career, Bartlett concentrated on Gaza.
Bartlett gained controversy over a video in which she alleges that rescues by the White Helmets are hoaxes and that they "recycle" the same children in footage of staged rescues. Bartlett's claims were found to be false by Channel 4 News and Snopes. Bartlett's claims were amplified by Russian-controlled outlets such as RT and Sputnik News. Bartlett has characterized the White Helmets as being part of a Western propaganda campaign. Bartlett has said that none of the civilians that she has met in Aleppo knew of the White Helmets. A 2017 report by The Syria Campaign claimed that YouTube had removed several videos of Bartlett because the videos were on “accounts linked to Russian disinformation”. An RT video where Bartlett said that the 2014election results showed that Syrians "overwhelmingly support" Bashar al-Assad was widely viewed. BuzzFeed News noted that the 2014 elections were widely regarded as a "sham". Bartlett falsely claimed that the al-Quds Hospital bombing in April 2016, where 55 died, never occurred, saying it was rebel propaganda. Two 2017 reports, one by the Atlantic Council and another by The Syria Campaign NGO, on Russia's disinformation campaign in the Syrian Civil War claimed that Bartlett was part of a network seeking to discredit the White Helmets and lessen war crimes committed by the Assad regime.
Bartlett went on a government-sponsored trip to North Korea, and said that western media coverage of the DPRK is aimed to "garner support for yet another American-led slaughter of innocent people".
