BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Reporters for the March 14 Lhasa riot
condemned the distorted coverage by some Western media, saying some of their
Western counterparts were against journalism ethics -- which is to report events
on the basis of facts.
"I am angry at my foreign counterparts' disloyalty to their
professionalism. They are not making stories out of the right and true," said
Zheng Zhaohong, a reporter with the China Central Television (CCTV).
According to the reporter's accounts, he was at Barkhor Street near Jokhang
Temple of Lhasa at around 5 p.m. on March 14.
"The prosperity and peace that we used to have in the streets was replaced
by chaos. The moment I arrived, the government was mobilizing citizens to clean
up the mess. People even can not walkthrough some alleys as they were full of
hardware fragments, glass pieces and broken chairs," he said.
"In the busy market area where the riot started, a four-storey building was
burnt off and I could still smell the burnt plastics and rubber," said the
reporter.
Zheng said he was "shocked" to see the scene.
"The Lhasa riot was criminal activities organized, premeditated and
masterminded by the Dalai clique," he said.
Another eyewitness to the riot, Gaisang Dawa, a Tibetan reporter with the
Tibet branch of Xinhua News Agency, said he could not believe his eyes when the
riot happened.
"The mobsters were smashing cars, chasing innocent people with knives and
setting fire to stores. Burning stores could be seen all around me," the
reporter said.
He said the untruthful reports carried by some Western media were to serve
other purposes.
"There was such a picture, in which a group of mobsters were hitting the
police car with stones, but some Western media removed part of it and left the
police car the only visible image," he said.
"They used this picture against the Chinese government by saying that the
troops are suppressing the locals, which is totally groundless," Gaisang Dawa
said.