In China, Western Journalists Face Challenges, Threats

BU prof says local students buy government line

chinapapersChina Daily

Click on the audio player to listen to an interview from Beijing with Anne Donohue, a COM associate professor.

The five cuddly, brightly colored “Fuwa” mascots of this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing send the world wishes for “prosperity, happiness, passion, health, and good luck,” according to the Olympic Games’ English-language Web site.

But as China goes all out with Olympic preparations, and as foreign media flood its cities, some Web-based patriots have a less welcoming message for Western journalists who write about China’s human rights record, particularly the country’s response to recent riots in Tibet. New sites, such as anti-cnn are filled with complaints about the “lies” of Western media, and laced with exhortations such as, “Beat to death these unjust conscienceless criminals.” Some Western reporters have been personally threatened with harm. “The Chinese people don’t welcome you, American running dog,” reads an e-mail to an Associated Press reporter. “Your reports twist the facts and you will suffer the curse of heaven.” A text message to a Western journalist states simply, “One of these days I’m going to kill you.”

“Western news bureaus have been inundated with nasty, scary stuff,” says Anne Donohue, a College of Communication associate professor of journalism, who is currently in Beijing on a Fulbright award teaching her craft to Chinese students at the People’s University of China. Donohue says the Chinese government has been pushing the bias story through its official media, with daily headlines decrying the coverage. In a phone interview from Beijing, Donohue tells BU Today that her undergraduate journalism students, people she would expect to be natural skeptics, are buying the official storyline of a Western media conspiracy “hook, line, and sinker.”

“These students really see the world in a very different way,” she says over a crackling phone line. “They think that nationalism or building up their country at all costs is the most important thing, and that’s more important than any other freedoms they would want.”

To learn more about China and the Olympics, listen to WBUR’s On Point, which this week is broadcasting live from Shanghai.

Chris Berdik can be reached at cberdik@bu.edu.

 

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In China, Western Journalists Face Challenges, Threats

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There are 46 comments on In China, Western Journalists Face Challenges, Threats

  1. The truth is somewhere in between, and I remain a skeptic.

    People are jumping on China right now because its such an emotional story, and it’s difficult to be objective. Search online and you will have two different stories and two different histories to Tibet. Journalists will inadvertently choose the history closest to their own system of beliefs to be true. Western journalists tell the Western view, Eastern journalists tell the Eastern view, and the thinking, discriminating individual cannot trust either.

    China’s human rights policy has room for improvement. But its important to remember that change takes time. Fifty years ago, in THIS country, certain races were treated as second class citizens and the law did nothing to prevent that. Today, racial tensions still linger. People forget that these are complicated issues – none of which can be fixed overnight.

    I have a class to catch so I’m cutting this short. Printing pictures of Nepalese police beating Tibetans? Lazy or skewed journalism. Charged diction such as “communist” or “propaganda”? Intentionally or unintentionally has the effect of bringing up images of the Cold War, Red China, the whole West vs. Rest scare. NOT acknowledging that the other side of the story might have a grain of truth? Unwise, because America no longer has the last say in the world anymore.

    If we as a nation (and I AM throughly American) wish go into this 21st century with any hope of maintaining economic and political power. We have to change our way of looking at other nations. We have to do everything we can to unite the people of the world (i.e. peaceful Olympic games) instead of divide people (i.e. promoting ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ through conflicting journalism).

    I hope for America’s sake and for China’s sake that these misunderstanding can be resolved, that the Beijing Olympics can be used as a symbolic landmark for the nation’s improvement, and that Chinese-Americans (like me) can live in a world where they won’t have to choose between American upbringings and Chinese heritage.

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  2. The question is: Do CNN and western media have bias too? Did CNN lie about the truth? If you look at the recent news, you should find out CNN did lie by making up photos. In addition, Jack Cafferty insulted Chinese people. Below is what he said: “Well, I don’t know if China is any different, but our relationship with China is certainly different. We’re in hock to the Chinese up to our eyeballs because of the war in Iraq, for one thing. They’re holding hundreds of billions of dollars worth of our paper. We also are running hundred of billions of dollars worth of trade deficits with them, as we continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we’re buying from Wal-Mart. So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed. I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years”

    The bottom line is that CNN and Jack Cafferty should appologize to Chinese people.

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  4. Why did you use “lies” of Western medias instead of lies of Western medias. Do you really know what happened in Tibet, London, Paris and San Fransicso? Have you ever been Tibet? Do you know what most Tibetan are thinking about?
    If answer is “NO”, please shut up. You don’t have the right to make any comments before you know the truth.

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  5. There are internet mobs in each and every country. What’s the difference between those young Chinese nationalists, who may be more verbally violent, and CNN’s Jack Cafferty and FOX’s Bill Reilly, who dress in suits and practice true “journalism” and are as hypocritic, condescending, provoking and insulting to so many people in this country and across the world as humanly possible?

    It might be a good debate on who twisted the facts more, the Chinese government or the Western media. But to blindly trust either of them is just laughable.

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  6. While I agree with the fact that biased journalism is a great threat to any informed citizen, I would also like to point out that the comment above disregards something grand:

    “If we as a nation (and I AM throughly American) wish go into this 21st century with any hope of maintaining economic and political power. We have to change our way of looking at other nations.”

    But as citizens of a global community, and not just America, we must be aware and compassionate to those around us. The emphasis shouldn’t be on America keeping its “ecomonic and political power.”

    We have to be compassionate to those around us and we mustn’t act on a self-interested desire for power but we must act to save the world’s people.

    The human rights violations in China are extremely severe. Not only with the treatment of Tibet. Take a look at the situation with Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a peaceful practice that emphasizes Truth, Forbearance, and Compassion. Because of its rapid growth in China, however, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has began a crackdown on the practice. The violations against practitioners are extreme. The CCP harvests organs of healthy practitioners. Practitioners are detained without proper trial and jailed in horrific jails where they undergo torture, rape, and forced-feeding.
    They send practitioners to brainwashing centers to reeducate them, forcing them to take drugs, which later lead to their deaths.

    Furthermore, the CCP’s treatment of AIDS victims, funding of the Janjaweeds (the repsonsible party for the genocide taking place in Darfur) and child labour laws are hard to ignore.

    It is injust to turn a blind eye to such human rights violations in order to keep America’s economic and political power.

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  7. New sites, such as anti-cnn are filled with complaints about the “lies” of Western media….

    It is not “lie”, it IS lie. If Western media could be more responsible regarding the Tibetan riots (for example, the economist), Chinese people would not get so angry.

    There is censorship in China of course. But why do you think overseas Chinese also got so angry? They have access to information both in China and in the West, and they don’t have to “buy Chinese government lines”.

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  8. As this news mentions anti-cnn, I hope all of the bu students and facultes have one minute to check the website http://www.anti-cnn.com so that you can judge by yourself who make the false news to fool the people intentionally. As we all know, Olympics means unite and fair play. It has nothing with politics. Just look at those people who attacks the Olympics torch in France, one of them even attacked a disabled young girl. That is so called “democracy”. Also all the media in United States why there are thousands of people support the Olympic torch rally in SF, only hundreds of protesters, all the news only shows the protesters, that is so called”fair and unbiased report”. Those protesters did not even know where is Tibet. Also if you want to learn about Tibet, learn from the history, not from media, find one or two books from library you will see what is the truth about Tibet. I was born in China, I am the person who feels the dramatic change for normal Chinese people not only in normal living standards but also in political ways. If you want to know the truth, go to China and feel by yourself and judge by yourself whether the western media is fair and unbiased. I just want to take one thing as example: the invasion into Iraq. How can you invade a independent country without the permission of UN? How many peoples killed there by American Troops? Why there is nothing on the news about that? That is so called “unbiased and fair report”. By the way, it already shows that there is not any Mass Destructive Weapons at all. And your troops are still there killing people. So take care of your own business and never try to interfere the other countries’ business. Make your own media”fair and unbiased” first.

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  9. Western journalists are perhaps the same idealists who unwittingly helped much of the suffering all over the world by letting themselves be fooled (yeah, I’m considering the best case scenario here) by the more cynical interests that mask their true design behind meaningless words like “human rights” and “freedom”. Why meaningless? Because at the end of the day, all these efforts for freedom end with more suffering for the victims! Actions bring consequences. If Don Imus receives threats from anonymous callers, should we feel sympathy for him? If these journalists routinely skew the news coverage (you almost can’t find Reuters photo of any Olympic venues or Chinese buildings without a policeman in the picture) and charge the language, then they are just reaping what they’re sowing. They are not journalists. They are paid propaganda agents of the same imperialists countries which are now calling themselves “G7”. Let’s be clear about that, then all these will make sense

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  10. What do so many western media intentionally report a portion of the facts and deliberately mislead the world? Are you neutral? If yes, why not spend a minute listening to another non-western voice and write a line in your report rather than listening to one voice? Be skeptics? Are you kidding us? Are western media ever skeptical about the CNN-like reports? Why the voice in western media is so united? BU as an educational institution should not help to mess up the situation by further relaying such misleading and deepening the misunderstanding. SHAME ON BU TODAY!

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  11. Take the following youtube link and you will see what is going on at CNN.

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=LyCTTeR2Ne8

    Below is a script:

    On the April 9, 2008 broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room”, when asked to comment on the United States’ relationship with China, Cafferty responded: “Well, I don’t know if China is any different, but our relationship with China is certainly different. We’re in hock to the Chinese up to our eyeballs because of the war in Iraq, for one thing. They’re holding hundreds of billions of dollars worth of our paper. We also are running hundred of billions of dollars worth of trade deficits with them, as we continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we’re buying from Wal-Mart. So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed. I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years”.

    In what sense, can you argue that on a national network as CNN, the above contexts constitute a FACT based “NEWS COMMENTARY”.

    The last but not the last, for professor Donohue. In what sense a discussion(or a campaign) about whether western media is biased/distorted could pose a “Challenges, Threats” to Western Journalists?

    Is western media (such as BBC, CNN, “voice of freedom”) really that trustworthy?

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  12. Thank the replier for comment above and I agree with the points in the comment.

    I am a Chinese. The first thing I want to say is I am sorry for those threating messages. I believe they are just a very small part of Chinese people, and the rest of us are rational and friendly. Furthermore, if most Chinese medias such as CCTV stand out to support Mexico sovereignty for Texas or giving all the land back to native Indians, I am afraid I would also hear some unpleasant voice including threating ones.

    Different from your traditional view of Chinese people, nowadays, more and more Chinese, especially educated ones, know that most media IS and ALWAYS BIASED, no matter it is a Chinese media or any media from any countries. We think before the decision of accepting the information or not and how much of it to be accepted. However, from the view of many of us, I feel many of Americans trust their so-called “free of speech” system so much that never doubt about the information given from the media, such as CNN. Looking at a short video on youtube, they know NOTHING about Tibet AT ALL and they stand out to support “free Tibet” just because the media told them that the there is no human right there. Is it so ridiculous? and who are the brainwashed?

    At last, for this report, I strongly suggest to dig more about the background, reasons and, most important, who is origin of starting such misunderstanding between us. DON’T just give the partially adverse facts on the surface. it cannot solve the problem at all.

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  13. skeptic，skeptic，skeptic
    If you listen to CNN every day, you would be brain washed definitely.. Western media is really shameless on reporting things that do not exist..
    Try anti-cnn.com to watch those videos..

    Be threaten by communist? or local people? Let’s define what is threatening.. When a Chinese holds the five star flag in USA, there are US people threatening “what the fvck a** h***, go back to Ch*** or I will kill you..” This happens every day in US, but did you see any report from CNN about these? Did you ever hear any western media boycott “US, stop war, pursue peace?” Let’s see what CNN’s Cafferty says:
    “”So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed, I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.””

    Facing such a a** h***, how can Chinese people keep calm?? The right response to this guy would be “I will kill you, s** of bit&&.” Now, US people is threatened and feel anxious… What a shame…

    Know more truth about the democracy…
    US fight with Sadam for Ben.Laden? No. It is for Bush’s face.
    US fight with Iraq for peace?? No. It is for oil
    US fight with Iran for weapon? No. It is for oil
    US fight with Chinese for human right? No. It is for fear of a stronger China…

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  14. For those who want to know why Chinese are irritated by some (not all) western media, I advise you to take a look at http://www.anti-cnn.com. By looking at those evidences, you may realize that Chinese people are irritated NOT because western media criticize China’s human rights condition, BUT because some western media use dirty tricks to manipulate evidence. For example, photos of Nepalese policemen beating demonstrators were post as documentation of alleged Chinese police attacks; the security forces’ saving a boy from an attacking Tibetan mob was coarsely labeled a violent arrest. Further, some western media describe the riot as peaceful protest, ignoring the fact that many innocent non-Tibetan Chinese are killed by those Tibetan mobs.

    As to the “threat” to some western journalists, personally I don’t agree with that reaction. But I think those who “threaten” do not really mean to do that; they just want to show their angry towards some lying and biased journalist.

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  15. The question is: Do CNN and western media have bias too? Did CNN lie about the truth? If you look at the recent news, you should find out CNN did lie by making up photos. In addition, Jack Cafferty insulted Chinese people. Below is what he said: “Well, I don’t know if China is any different, but our relationship with China is certainly different. We’re in hock to the Chinese up to our eyeballs because of the war in Iraq, for one thing. They’re holding hundreds of billions of dollars worth of our paper. We also are running hundred of billions of dollars worth of trade deficits with them, as we continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we’re buying from Wal-Mart. So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed. I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years”

    The bottom line is that CNN and Jack Cafferty should appologize to Chinese people.

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  16. There are so many bias on China and the Chinese. The culture and background is so different, and you can’t avoid the bias when people here talk about China, and Chinese there talk about here.

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  17. Can American President president China, and Can Chinese leader leads USA. There is no way both ways. there is no way, the other around.
    There is no absolute right or wrong. although there is black and white, and you can’t be grey.

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  18. If you want to be Mike Morroe, go with him, If you want to be George Cloony, go with him. If you want to be Richard Gere, f with him.
    Sorry for the misspelling, I’m not a native English speaker.

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  19. I very agree with the point above. The people in western and eastern have different ideology but they are all trying to make a better, free and humane life. Western journalist did say something bad even humiliate Chinese people or government, and some Chinese did say bad thing even threaten the people who hold different views. However, if you ask plain American or Chinese or other countries’ student, you’ll see they are getting along very well and quite friendly with each other. One person’s view can’t represent all. And I believe that Chinese people are very welcoming any people, even those who have different views–without violent or inappropriate actions. The understanding among the whole world will bring us a better life, for overall people in this planet.

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  20. I really don’t think it is appropriate for BU-today to show us a news like this.

    This whole China, Olympics and Tibet thing is real complicated and there are huge political interest behind both Chinese and American government. Both Chinese and American media has their own bias. BU is an academic community. People here should read things more insightful. If you want to show us what’s going on in the world, please show us your objective analysis, not just one-sided critics.

    Yes, I know this paper doesn’t express the BU-today’s opinion about the media fight about the Olympics, Tibet and human right issues, but the facts you are using are consequence of those issues. You cannot just take what you want disregarding the complicated reasons behind it.

    BU has a large international student population, including lots of Chinese students. Chinese students know their government needs to improve her ways to control the country, but they are really not responsible for the human right and the Tibet issue. BU-today sent a paper like this to every single student’s email box of BU community. What kind of effect are you expecting? Are you making things more clear? NO. You are only making Americans hate Chinese more and making all Chinese students’ life even harder than it already is in a foreign country. This news really doesn’t do anyone good.

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  21. Honestly I doubt that those hostile emails were all sent out by the Chinese patriots. The Dalai Mala has many free men that have no proper jobs and thus enough free time to fake those emails.

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  22. I think the Olympic game in Benjing is an opportunity for chinese people to more open to the world.
    People right now in china not only like to listen praise, but also like to listen to criticizes if the criticize is right.
    But this time the western media twist the truth and criticize chinese people and government base on the bias. It is not fair.

    Think about you, if you did nothing wrong this time and got a lot of criticizes base on the bias and got humiliation, are you going to get angry?

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  23. I just think it is ironic that the western journalists who cared about “freedom of speech” in China got scared when some Chinese people freely expressed their opinion to them. I am not trying to encourage such kind of immature reaction though. Before they complain about Chinese government or Chinese people, could they pls spend a second to think about what they had done to successfully irritate Chinese people? While labelling themselves as fighters for the human right situation in China, do they care what Chinese people think and feel? No, they don’t. I know the human right situation in China is not perfect, but it is not perfect in any country in this world. And the Chinese government is improving on that. Since someone had mentioned about FLG in some previous comments. I just want to make it clear that when FLG was popular in China, it banned people who believe in it from seeing doctors or taking medicine when they got sick. Personally I think it’s a wise step for CCP to ban FLG in China. Pls learn some more fact about things before you jump onto the judgments.

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  24. Mr. Berdik,

    I’m extremly disappointed and angry with your acticle. I urge you and BU Today do a couple of things before you argue you and the western meidas are “unbiased” or “objective”.

    #1 Study history rather than study media. Tibet was, is and will be a part of China no matter what happened and will happen.

    #2 Put youselves in Chinese people’s shoes to help you understand how we are feeling. Everything happens for a reason. I don’t think you would be happy if Chinese government supported Mexico sovereignty for Texas or California.

    #3 Have you ever visited http://www.anti-cnn.com? Please take a look at it to help you understand who’s the liar. It is not “lie”, it IS lie.

    Please note serious consequences of your “unbiased” article. You are ruining the peaceful campus by bringing politics into the classroom!

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  25. The article itself is a perfect example of the Western media’s failure to present news with a well-rounded perspective. Its inability to address the issue in the context of past events, and the opinionated undertone are shocking. I am surprised that the editors had not been aware of what consequences of publishing such a biased news story would have on a prestigious school like BU. And on this point, I am quite saddened to see that an academic institution like BU is tolerating the subtle promotion of prejudice.

    Problems about the article:

    – The entire story was solely based on one person’s opinion, that of Anne Donohue, whose limited observation and perception of the situation unfortunately undermine an objective perspective.

    – Very importantly, the story was not put in context of series of events that had happened since mid-March. The reporter failed to allude to any instance that explains why some in China believed Western Media would lie. It is true that Western Media have published images that were not taken from the actual site of the riots and labeled them otherwise. And simply put it, they lied. Also, the article did not even attempt to explain the anger felt by some in China. Perhaps, the arrogant comments made by Jack Cafferty, CNN anchor could explain the outrage, who labeled Chinese as “goons and thugs”. Though Cafferty attempted to justify his comments, his clarification remained questionable and insincere.

    – All of the alleged “threats” are not quoted from credential sources. Meanwhile, the article failed to provide any direct quotes from local Chinese. The only one allusion to the sentiment felt by China was actually quoted from Donohue, whose comment clearly reflected her personal interpretation.

    Last but not least, the title of the article mislead the truth and was clearly a reflection of the level of arrogance that many non-Caucasian and non-American students have been experience.

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  26. there is no such thing as unbiased reporting. stop complaining about it. China releases propaganda, cnn releases propaganda, its our responsibility to use our brains and sort through the information and find the truth.

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  28. Let’s forget about the heating debate for a second, and let me tell you my experience after spending 27 years in China.

    First, Tibetans are chinese, as are all other 55 minority ethnic groups. During my lifetime to today, when I learn that some one’s ethnicity is minority, my first thought is they are privileged Chinese citizens. Why? Here are some cases.

    The one-child policy does not apply to them —- they can have as many kids as they want, just because they are minority. Unfair, huh?

    Admission to colleges are easier for them. For example, Han Chinese need 600 in National College Admission Test to get into a top 20 college, while if you have a tiny bit of minority blood flowing in your vessel you can get in with 450. Good enough, huh?

    Minority people can run business anywhere in China with much much simplified registration process, many own restaurants without any health license, nor do they need to pay taxes. What the hell?!

    Why the government is doing that?

    Maybe you don’t believe that the government is trying to make the country more stable and more united, then maybe you still can believe that the government is scared that if it doesn’t give any previlige to them, the minority person will definitely make up a tragic story and cry to CNN the next morning.

    That’s my view.

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  29. First of all, if u want to know the truth, go to the http://www.anti-cnn.com to check, and use your own judgement to judge whether CNN lies or not. As we all know, Olympics means unite and fairplay, it has nothing to do with politics. If you watch how they attacked a disabled young girl in France during the torch relay, do you believe that is so called”democracy”. For those people who protest for Tibet during the torch relay, most of the did not even know where is the Tibet. And also during the torch relay in SF, u can check the news and newspaper, they only shows the protesters. The fact is there was only hundreds of the protesters while there are thousands people support the torch relay. That is what you so called “non-biased, true western media”. So who is fooling the innocent people, it is the western media. If you want to learn the truth about Tibet and China, just go to China and feel by yourself, go to the library to find one or two history books to see what is the truth about China and Tibet. I was born in China and I watched the huge change of normal chinese people life not only in living standards but also in political. So western media shut up and care about your own business. Why no one report American Troops killed millions of Iraq people, why there is no mass destructive weapons at all, you still invade Iraq. That is you so-called “Democracy” and “Unbiased report”. So study the history and see who lies.

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  30. Dalai Just want to make use of Olympic to give political pressure to China government. He say he is peaceful guy but he plan so many violence. It is him who cause such crisis. But everyone want to see a great sport game.

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  31. Western media should respect the fact in China instead of giving us false report regarding the demestic affairs of China. Every single country has the right to maintain its own politics. Other countries have no right to intervere.

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  32. BU Today should apologize for posting this one-sided, biased article tomorrow, and SEND SUCH APOLOGIZE TO EVERY SUBSCRIBER. This article would cause misunderstanding and strengthen bias that other countries’s students have on Chinese students in the campus. Showing comments here does not heal the wound it creates because few people will get back to this website to read comments and know the other side of the story.

    Alternatively, BU Today should post a article that represents the opinion of Chinese people, like those in the comments, and send it to every subscriber.

    In addition, if BU Today wants to keep on putting articles on this issue, it should also write about that some western media making fake photos, that the Tibetan mobs killing non-Tibetan Chinese, and that the Dalai Lama’s group is former masters in slavery Tibet before they exiled.

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  33. To whom wrote “a second view”, please do not mislead the readers. How could you say that an organization that encourages people to burn themselves to death is “a peaceful practice that emphasizes Truth, Forbearance, and Compassion”? If you do not believe this truth, please search on google.com, there are a lot of videos and news to show you the truth. As to your description of Chinese prison, I can tell you, you are totally WRONG. As a legal professional in China, I think I can provide better facts than you are. There is NO such brainwashing centers nor forcing them to take drugs at all. What you said exist in movies such as “Clockwised Orange” or “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, or maybe exist in the US, but not in China.

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  34. First of all, I am a Chinese and I am sorry for the threats western journalists got in China. While I do believe that this is done only by a small portion of immature people, I want to remind the journalists to think about their own stand: Why are these civilians so hostile to you? Could it be that we get enough of distortion? And we are angry!

    Second, I like the idea brought up in “Objective Look”, I do agree that there are so many misunderstandings existing between nations. The wisest way is to be open to each other and willing to take things the way they are.

    While so many western countries are criticizing China on its human rights situation, I would like to post one question for them: what makes you think you are qualified to criticize another country in a field that you are also experiencing trouble?

    I am not saying that China is perfect in human rights, we are far from that and there will never be a day for this perfection to come. However, I do want to say, as some friends previously said, we are making progress and the progress does take time. Think of the time it took America to finally emancipate slavery, think of the marginalized right now, do you still think you are the right one to blame another country for not changing the whole situation overnight?

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  35. People are not able to visit the world and know about everything, so they created “Media”. As a journalist, the basic line is that you should have profession ethics and tell people the truth. However, some media, like CNN did not follow this doctrine. They play audiance like fools; they cut pictures to distort the truth; they pointed at China’s national flags in San Francisco Torch relay and tell the audiance “these are the protestors against Chinese government.”; they call the chinese “goons and thugs.” see the website anti-cnn.com, to make the judgment by yourselves. The constitution entitles the US citizens the right of knowing the truth along with the right of free speech. AS A MEDIA, CNN HAS THE RIGHT TO KEEP SILENT, BUT IT DO NOT HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO ALTER THE FACTS AND MISLEAD PEOPLE. But CNN seems did not aware of this doctrine nor did it make any efforts to keep its professional ethics. They didn’t tell the audiance that the Tibetian mobs burned 5 young girls live to death and hit many others to death. They did not tell the audiance that Chinese government have exempted the tax of Tebit for many years and it provide financial support to the Tibetian area every year. They did not tell that the Tibetian lamas get salary for being lama and do not have to work at all. They did not even retrospect the 1992 LA riots and tell people that the US government did the same thing in the past that it moblized an army of 10,000 and killed 50 more people to settle the riot.

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  37. Enough already. This is just an article about what a BU professor says, nothing more and nothing less. Everything has causes and ramifications. If you go back to what “justifies” this hate toward western journalists, please don’t stop there. If you argue how badly North American, European, Australian, Japanese, Indian, Korean, Arabian media all distorted the truth, go ahead and explain why the lies can fool the vast majority of world population so easily!
    I am Chinese, non FLG non Tibetan. Admittedly I can’t go indefinitely along this chain either. Here is the link I stop — why did the Chinese government lock foreign journalist out of Tibet and allow rumors and inaccuracies to spread? Anyone want to move forward together ???

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  38. Welcome to jump on the China-basing bandwagon.

    Yes, we can enjoy using a public news channel of calling the Chinese “goons and thugs” and later trying to get away by “clarifying” that the statement was not toward Chinese but China’s government(even though I still can’t get a hang of why Chinese meaning the Chinese government). Then we will not complain about the American being called “goons and thugs” because they might be referring to the Bush’s administration…

    We can also enjoy feeling right about ourselves, as god of the world, because only China has the human right problem, only China mistreats the inmates. Only China will fill me in with such stories like “Practitioners are detained without proper trial and jailed in horrific jails where they undergo torture, rape, and forced-feeding. They send practitioners to brainwashing centers to reeducate them, forcing them to take drugs, which later lead to their deaths. “ ( I don’t know who told the tales, but I enjoy it, because it makes me feel right and righteous) Only China bans the illegal organizations. Only China does not use the influence in Africa for preventing genocide.

    We do let illegal organizations like the mafia exists with joy, and we enter Iraq just fighting the terrorist, not for controlling the oil. All the jail movies are just all make up stories from Hollywood…

    So let’s throw a party to bash China! Because the stereotype of Chinese are just being quiet, peaceful and mind their own business, we can piss them however we want and won’t expect them to mouth back. We have teachers like Anne Donohue to educate the brainwashed Chinese student and we will be concerned and get angry if they don’t agree with our wonderful westerners’ view of the world. Because all we received are un-biased undistorted education, and the pictures of our news reports are not tailored

    I cordially welcome you to join us. We will be always right no matter what we say and do, because that is true and known to the world. We can tell the Chinese “go back to China” because, even though we are also immigrants to this continent, but it was so many generations ago. We won’t let Texas be its own nation, because we fought a civil war to free all its slaves, Tibet never had slave problem in its history. China will never be a power in the international community but we already a super power of the world. We rule!

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  39. This article is a perfect example to show why some western media has been challenged. The first comment actually IS MUCH more objective than the article itself and it covers most of the important points regarding the issue about baised journalism. The simple fact is that CNN and some other western media DID lie on the issue of Tibet riot. So before you (the editor) become intuitively defensive when someone points that out, take some time to go through anti-cnn.com, as well as CNN and make your own judgement. There is a reason why western media is questioned by the chinese people. I think that the only thing this article will do is to aggitate the conflict here. I mean, who would believe that deliberately picking out some internet mob’s offensive words is trying the solve the problem. There are a lot more reasonable and calm thoughts from the chinese people like some comments below and this article doesn’t care to mention one word of them. Not only that, the article doesn’t care to investigate a little bit about whether the acusation to the CNN is true or false. This is not objective, on the contrary, this is the very reason why some western media has been challenged.

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  40. Why don’t you mention one point stated on anti-cnn.com? Don’t you know those points exactly explain why you “Western Journalists Face Challenges, Threats”?? Would you welcome someone who spread extremely false, ugly and dirty rumors everywhere to your house?

    I attended BU and I believe an IR or an EAS student can write a much better and more thoughtful article than this.

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  41. Suppose there is a Chinese reporter in the US whose main interest is to report the activities of separating Texas from the US, or the activities for Hawaiian independence. How will he be treated by the American people?

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  42. Many Chinese are brainwashed, so are many Americans!

    In China people have limited access to free media. However most Chinese, esp. the young generation, are always skeptical on the state media and usually welcome the other side of the story from the West.

    On the other hand American people generally trust their media and do not have the desire to look for the other side of the story. And sadly the brainwash happens when all the mainstream media are biased on some foreign issues for half a century. Nobody cares to mention that the Chinese government has lifted 300 million people, including Tibetan Chinese, out of poverty in the past 30 years, and nobody cares to ask how much human rights Tibetan Chinese had when Dalai Lama was in power, no one even reports his current proposal on the racial segregation policy in the “greater Tibet” and the lack of freedom of religion in his exile government.

    When the rioters in Lhasa killed innocent Han and Hui Chinese, and when three Han Chinese girls and one Tibetan Chinese girls were burned to death in the fire set by the rioters, and when pro-Tibet Americans acknowledged on NPR that normal Han Chinese were targets of violence from the militant Tibetans but that “was a reasonable and understandable reaction to the Chinese government’s policies, I can not help but to fear the damage of the biased media in the past half century in both US and China.

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  43. “China’s human rights policy has room for improvement.” A little bit of an understatement, me thinks. Mr. Hu Jia, who is now serving 3 years in jail for “inciting subversion of state power” (i.e. speaking out and having too many opinions) certainly believed that China’s human rights policy had major room for improvements. (http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/chinese-activist-gets-jail-sentence-20080403)

    Whenever anyone makes rather controversal and thoughtless statements about a country (i.e. Mr. Cafferty’s Imus moment) people always seem to become quickly irrational about things and start to look for major controversy where it does not need to be. There is no conspiracy to discredit China by CNN, no matter what the “impartial” people at “ANTI-cnn.com” have to say. That is just foolish reactionism. The other fallback reaction I find that people commonly display is to give people a pass on their own mistakes by stating that others have done the same thing (i.e. The US has horrible human rights abuses in Guantanamo and so Chinese policy is fine), or that no one has a right to comment who is not from the region because they cannot understand the unique cultural elements present in that environment (i.e. Western Bias).

    These arguments are crap. Simple crap that is sometimes rolled in “academic” ego and false sensitivity. Human rights are the same everywhere, because culture does not change the fact that people who are being jailed in China, waterboarded in the US, or starved in Africa are still human. People have a right to be free from government control, free to worship a religion of their choice (or not to), free to say whatever they want about anyone else (or country), and free to point out where a country or culture has faults in whatever mean and uncomfortable way that they want to. China has major faults that have been expressed as major crimes against the common dignity of mankind. The United States, Kenya, Australia and many others have done this also (for a good list of everyones’ go to amnesty.org). We must learn to speak of the problems of countries without care about our own personal place of origin. Crimes committed by any country must be attacked and forcefully brought to justice by the people of the world. Nationalism is the enemy of the global advancement of freedom.

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  44. I, as a Chinese, am very puzzled by the comment below about “China’s human rights policy…”. I noticed the “me thinks” part, but just wasn’t sure how his/her logic flows.

    “The other fallback reaction…These arguments are crap”. So what’s the point bashing on the human rights records of China, which is definitely not the topic of the article above? If we have to stretch the discussions, how would the “major faults” or “major improvement” in China’s human rights justify the killing of innocence civilians, rioting, looting and robbery in Lhasa 4/14/08 ? I may be brainwashed, but enlighten me, please!

    As I am writing these, I do (and I believe most Chinese people) realize the intentional manipulation/clipping of pictures by CNN, and the mistaking of police scene from other countries as Chinese supperssion by German TV, and calling all Chinese products “junks”, and the outright comments by Mr. Cafferty, and the ignorance of voice from Chinese population by western media, do NOT justify personal threats against western journalists in China.

    It is easier to relegate others’ comments as “always seem to become quickly irrational” without even reading through let alone contemplating upon them. Excuse me for making my subjective judgement here, but by stating ‘…no matter what the “impartial” people at “ANTI-cnn.com” have to say…’, the commentor has already made his/hers.

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  45. his is an interesting article. I have continuously been impressed with Chinese calligraphy…I believe its vastly artistic and beautiful. its a good thing that they have kept up by way of this very old art…nowadays we exhaust so a good deal of the elder traditions for the reason that we dont understand it. merit for sharing!

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