Monday March 24, 2008
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday March 24, 2008
China reproaches foreign media
China has sharply criticized foreign reporters here over their coverage of the riots in Tibet, accusing them of biased reporting and preventing them from traveling to Tibet or neighboring provinces to report on the unrest.
The government has also increased its propaganda campaign aimed at convincing the Chinese public that the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, instigated the violence in Tibet on March 14 and that China was a victim of separatist terrorist activity.
The campaign is the clearest sign of China’s concerns that the Tibet unrest, as well as anti-government protests over Darfur, could disrupt the Olympic Games this summer.
In a sign of the tension with the media, three members of the Athens chapter of Reporters Without Borders, a media-rights group based in Paris, disrupted the Olympic flame-lighting ceremony in Greece on Monday. The incident occurred as Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee, was addressing thousands of spectators, dignitaries and Olympics officials.
The government appears to be blocking foreign Web sites inside China and censoring foreign television broadcasts here about the situation in Tibet. Youtube.com was blocked after the riots began and CNN and BBC broadcasts regularly go black after any mention of Tibet. The New York Times Web site also appeared to have been blocked or censored in recent days. (Source: NYTimes)
