Syria, under the regime of Bashar al-Assad, is currently one of the most dangerous places for journalists, with 50 reporters killed and many more missing in conflict, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Because of the ongoing civil war, and al-Assad’s bans on the international press, it has been extremely difficult for members of the international press to report from the conflict.

Under these hostile conditions, a blogger from Leicester, England, using the pseudonym Brown Moses, became an indispensable chronicler of the Syrian war. By using digital platforms such as Twitter and YouTube, Moses was able to document the arms used by all sides in the war, and confirm that the Assad regime used chemical weapons.

The video below highlights some of Brown Moses’ work.

Patrick Radden Keefe details the story of Eliot Higgins a.k.a Brown Moses in The New Yorker ($).