By ROBERT MACKEY

Nearly 12 months into the uprising in Syria, government attempts to stifle news coverage by barring independent reporters from the country are still being confounded by a network of activists who have now posted more than 40,000 video clips on YouTube, offering glimpses of protests and documenting a violent crackdown on dissent.

Faced with this apparent evidence of a popular movement to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, and the accounts of foreign journalists who have managed to find ways into the country to witness the violence firsthand, the Syrian government continues to dispute the authenticity of the footage, day after day, and works to undermine the credibility of activists and reporters it accuses of either fabricating the images or lying about what they show.

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