More notably, the websites of Germany's Bild
newspaper, N-TV and RTL TV, and the Washington Post all used pictures of
baton-wielding Nepalese police in clashes with Tibetan protesters in Kathmandu,
claiming that the officers were Chinese police. However, the fact is that
Nepalese security forces were confronting demonstrators with batons.
All the above-mentioned Western media completely
turned blind eyes to the principles of fairness and objectivity, which they have
been preaching, in the reports about riots in Tibet. Their distorted reports are
far from mistakes they claimed.
Chinese netizens angered by biased and sometimes
dishonest reports about the recent riots in Tibet by some Western media
established the anti-cnn website in order to collect and make public the biased
reports and shed light on the truth that the Western media are aimed at
tarnishing the image of China.
The RTL TV admitted on March 23 that their report on
Tibet was inaccurate and said sorry for that. Few media other than RTL have made
sincere apology for their distorted reports.
Power of public opinion on the
Internet
In the face of biased Western reports, netizens act
rationally even though they are angered by the reports. They collected facts,
through means including blogs and video images, that prove the Western reports
are wrong and distorted.
An article on the Internet with 11 pictures strongly
criticized the distorted reports and then many media carried the article
together with the pictures.
A video footage named "Tibet is part of China both in
the past, at present and in the future" on the famous video website Youtube
received 1.2 million hits and 72,000 pieces of comments in different languages
in three days after it was published. It also sparked widespread debate in many
countries about the Tibet issue.
Another video image called "Tibet riots: the true
face of Western media" also received record hits.
In the same time, netizens on domestic websites also
strongly chided the distorted reports. Traffic of the anti-cnn website exceeded
200,000 five days after it was set up, with more than 2,000 netizens providing
various proof. CNN's news reporting has become the synonym of disinformation and
garbling that run counter to the true values of news reporting. "You cannot
behave like CNN" soon became a catchword in the Internet.
Apart from the anti-cnn website, netizens also
applied to establish anti-BBC and anti–VOA websites. Many netizens think CNN is
only part of the Western media that have deep-rooted misunderstanding of and
prejudice against China and it is necessary for them (netizens) to make truths
known.
As a media commentary goes, "Chinese netizens'
rational opinion and love of their country are becoming 'weapon of criticism'
that foreign media have to face up to."
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
