Olympic torch coverage wanes

A protester holds a placard reading "CNN needs to apologise"

Western media has all but lost interest in the continuing Olympic torch relay. After the San Francisco leg of its world tour, coverage has gradually dwindled both in newspapers as well as on TV news reports. The Argentine was only covered partially by broadcasters and there was little reference to events in many Western papers. Tanzania came and went with out a mention as did the arrival of the Olympic flame in Oman. Coverage picked up for the relays in Pakistan and India but dropped as the flame touched down in Bangkok. As the torch made its way around the Thai capital few broadcasters gave any time to events on the ground. Even Chinese protests in Europe and the US have been virtually ignored. The protests, which aimed to bring to public attention the anger many Chinese felt about Western coverage of events in Tibet, fell mostly on deaf ears. CNN has been the most criticised broadcaster by many Chinese. Perceived media bias and comments by CNN commentator Jack Cafferty has prompted angry responses from many Chinese, both at home and abroad. Ironically, it is CNN that has provided the most intensive coverage of both the protests as well as the Olympic torch relay. When the relay hit the streets of Kuala Lumpa in Malaysia and Jakarta in Indonesia, only CNN broadcast Live reports. Sky News have almost completely ignored the continuing journey of the Olympic flame, billed as the Journey of Harmony. Even when the flame was carried around Canberra in Australia, only the BBC and CNN carried some Live pictures of the event. Of course the coverage was not as intensive as that given over to London and San Francisco.

The BBC only dipped into pictures broadcast by Australia’s Channel 9 only sporadically with a short Live report by their reporter which he gave by phone. CNN’s Andrew Stevens gave his Live report from Canberra on camera, during which one pretty Chinese girl held a hastily written notice reading ’CNN Apologise’. The impromptu protest seemed to cause an amused reaction from Kristie Lu Stout in the Hong Kong studio, who was heard to stifle a laugh. Stevens did not seem so amused as he ended his broadcast however, seemingly perturbed by something off camera. The next stop on the relay is Nagano in Japan which has already seen protests and changes to the route. Monks at one temple have protested their anger and forced the relay to change its plans to start from the Zenkoji Temple. There were also reports that the temple had been sprayed with graffiti ahead of the flame’s arrival [CNN].

Meanwhile the French Prime Minister has attempted to calm the anger that has been directed towards the country over the last few weeks. Nicholas Sarkozy wrote a personal letter to Jin Jing, a disabled torch bearer who was attacked several times during the Paris relay earlier this month. In his letter handed to her by Christian Poncelet, the president of the French Senate, Sarkozy offers his condolences and also invites her to visit him at the Elysée Palace in Paris [Independent]. His effort to build reconciliation between France and China was dampened after the Paris Mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, made the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen. The bestowing of such an award is purely symbolic but has further angered many Chinese [BBC]. Protests have continued at many Carrefour store across China. At Wuhan, in central China, two men waved a French tricolour daubed with swastikas and insults in French and English such as "Jeanne d'Arc = prostitute", "Napoléon = pervert" and "Free Corsica". Corsica has long demanded independence from mainland France [BBC].

The nationalistic protests, which have been quietly encouraged by the Chinese authorities, are now being reined in. In Tuesday’s China Daily the Editorial called on protesters to act with “responsible patriotism”.

“A stubborn insistence that those who do not join the protests and boycott Carrefour are not patriotic is false patriotism... Patriots are supposed to adopt a tolerant attitude toward others and be broad enough to see what is good and what is bad in them. Over-the-top nationalism is not constructive, but can do harm to the country. If we want to improve things, we will have to encourage responsible patriotism." Even amongst the bloggers there is a call for calm. One Chinese blogger launched a forum asking readers not to boycott Carrefour, arguing the store sells Chinese goods and has nothing to do with Tibet. But comments left on the site are weighted in favour of continued boycotts of at least 6 to 1 [CNN].

China has experienced similar spasms of public outrage before. The bombing by the U.S. of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999, and the collision of a Chinese fighter jet with a U.S. surveillance plane near Hainan Island in 2001 both sparked much anger amongst many Chinese. But with increased technology the youth of China is far more connected. According to newly released figures China now ranks above the US with the numbers of people connected to the internet.

And the views expressed should be noted says Paul Mason on the Newsnight blog. “Western journalists should listen to these protests: you don't have to agree with them but if you listen to them you will learn more about what is driving them”, he says. The current war of words and vitriol that has been thrown at each other from both China and the West has been largely exacerbated by the lack of understanding of two diametrically different cultures. Both sides need to understand each other more if there is to be a Journey of Harmony and an achievement of One World, One Dream.