Special report: Dalai clique's separatist activities
condemned
BERLIN, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Two German news
organizations have apologized after being accused of distorting facts in
covering the riots in Lhasa, capital city of China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
German news television N-TV on Monday admitted that a
picture and a video sequence it used on March 20 in a report about the riots in
Tibet had actually been taken in Nepal, a neighboring country of China.
It said the images had already been replaced after
editors noticed the mistakes.
"We are terribly sorry," said a N-TV spokesman in
Colgone.
On Sunday, another German television, RTL, also
admitted on its website that it "used a picture in a wrong context."
In fact, the picture showed security forces in Nepal,
the RTL Aktuell, a main news program of the RTL TV, said in an online statement.
"The image was taken on March 17 in the capital city
of Kathmandu, where Nepalese security forces were confronting demonstrators with
batons," it said.
"We have accidentally created the impression that it
is a scene of the unrest in Tibet with Chinese security forces involved. We
regret this error," the statement added.
The RTL Aktuell, N-TV, along with the German Bild
newspaper and the Washington Post, have been found using images of
baton-wielding Nepalese police in clashes with protesters in Kathmandu, claiming
that the officers were Chinese police.
They were among those Western media that have been
condemned by netizens in the past few days for distorting facts in covering the
riots in Lhasa.
CNN has posted a picture on its website showing
people running in front of a military truck. The original picture uploaded by
Chinese netizens, however, also shows mobsters throwing stones at the truck.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) released a
picture on its website showing China's armed police officers helping medical
staff move a wounded person into an ambulance.
The website's caption said "there is a heavy military
presence in Lhasa," neglecting obvious "First Aid" and red cross signs on the
ambulance.
The German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost posted a
picture on its website in which police in Lhasa rescued a young man of Han
nationality assaulted by rioters. But the caption distorted the fact as
"insurrectionist taken away by police."
Fox TV said in a picture's caption on its website
that the Chinese military dragged some protesters onto a vehicle but actually
the uniformed people were Indian police.
Foreigners in Tibet: Western media reports not conform with facts
LHASA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- While some Western media rashly accuse China of "violent crackdown" on the "peaceful protests" in Tibet, some foreigners there disagreed.
"Many reports were not accurate," said Tony Gleason, field director of Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund, an American organization which helps poor Tibetans through skill training and small sum of financing. Full story
