Monks speak out as foreign media visit Lhasa

Journalists were taken on a guided tour of Lhasa by Chinese authorities today, but there was little mention of their visit in many news bulletins. CNN and Al Jazeera did broadcast a report, giving over about 3 minutes each to the story. But there was no coverage of the visit on BBC News 24 or Sky News, though their respective websites did report the story [BBC / Sky News].
On both the CNN and Al Jazeera reports, the focus was an angry response from Tibetan monks. “They don’t trust us they lock us up and treat us unjustly” one monk told reporters. Another told Al Jazeera, “They don’t trust us, the government thinks we will destroy, rob and burn, but we didn’t do anything like this.” Many looked visibly distraught as the aired their grievances. “We want freedom, but they’ve imprisoned Lamas and normal people” said a wailing monk, while another holy man, referring to the Chinese statements about the riots said, “it’s all a lie, they’re treating us so badly.”

But there have been victims on both sides, and Al Jazeera was one of few broadcasters showing the other side of the story. In bulletins shown today, the Arabic station showed pictures of a shift memorial erected for 5 Han Chinese girls burned to death in a building during the rioting.
There were many journalists in the carefully controlled visit including reporters from the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Al Jazeera. But the BBC, CNN and a number of other media organisations were denied permission to join the excursion following anger by some Chinese people over ‘misreporting’ of the events over the last two weeks.

“You in the media should all reflect on this public outcry”, said Qin Gang, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, “it is a reaction by all Chinese people against irresponsible and unethical reporting”.

CCTV-9 reported on the continuing problems in Tibet and surrounding provinces for nearly 15 minutes. Zhang Lu, reporting for the news station, said restaurants were beginning to reopen after recent disturbances in northern Sichuan province. She said 900 people had been “handed over to police” and would be “dealt with according to the law”. China says that in Tibet itself 18 civilians and one police officer were killed during the riots; riots organized and instigated by what China calls the ‘Dalai clique’. Zheng Dui, a researcher at the China Tibetology research centre, said, “Religious precepts ask monks not to kill, steal or lie. Religious people in Tibet take the view that monks who resorted to violence had broken religious precepts and should be punished”. And in a counterattack to claims that Tibetan people are sidelined by the minority Han Chinese population, Tanzen Lhundrup, Deputy Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Studies, said that there had been much investment in the area of Tibet. “People’s living standards, infrastructure, medical care and the education have all been greatly improved in the 30 years of China‘s opening up,” Mr Tanzen insisted, “anyone who visits Tibet can see the Tibetans have fully benefited from the country‘s reform and development.”

CCTV-9 also focused on what it called “distorted reports” by western media. In one example, the BBC was criticised for a web page dated March 17th. On the page a picture of an ambulance was used with the caption ‘There is a heavy military presence in Lhasa’. The page appears either to have been updated on the BBC website. CNN was criticised for ’doctoring a photograph of civilians throwing stones at police trucks’, while the Berliner Morgenpost was cited in distorting the truth for showing a rescued Han Chinese citizen with the caption of ‘police arresting Tibetans‘. However in an unusual move by Chinese authorities, the BBC website became accessible throughout China.