Bizarre abuse of the media from Peking

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) rejected as "bizarre” complaints from China that international reporting on the situation in Tibet is one-sided. "For it is the Chinese authorities who have withdrawn from all foreign journalists and independent correspondentthe chance of drawing up their own picture of the situation in Tibet”, said the GfbV Asia expert, Ulrich Delius. It is indeed regrettable if some TV companies have presented reports on the protest of Tibetans in a wrong light. However if free reporting had been allowed these mistakes would have been quickly corrected.

The abuse of the media shows Peking’s great concern that in spite of the total ban on news from Tibet two weeks after the beginning of the unrest fresh demonstrations and arrests have leaked out, said Delius. This shows how little trust can be placed in the liberalisation of the censorship of the press in the People’s Republic which has been feted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and EU governments. The harsh criticism of the media is a bad omen for the Olympia reporting, because it must be feared that the international media will exercise self-censure to safeguard their correspondents in the People’s Republic.

Although the public protests in Tibet are continuing and more people are being killed there have so far been no calls for sanctions against China’s leaders, criticised the GfbV. By contrast with the Tianmen massacre in 1989 all governments are holding carefully back to make sure that China’s leaders are not caused any anger. ”Yet if the heads of government were to abstain from attending the official opening of the Olympic Games they would be setting a clear signal for human rights”, said Delius. It is true that China’s economic and political influence in the world has increased since 1989. "However the international community must answer the question as to the credibility of its concern for human rights if it is not even prepared to call for an independent investigation of the bloody crushing of the protests in Tibet.”