Media continues to mislead with "China Quake" headlines

 Headlines exacerbating China’s politicisation of Tibet’s Earthquake

Free Tibet remains extremely concerned that continuing “China Earthquake” headlines in the international media are failing to reflect the very Tibetan nature of the earthquake that struck one of the most Tibetan areas of the Tibetan Plateau last week (1).

Major international networks and publications today led their reports with headlines that announced China’s Day of Mourning for the victims of China’s quake.

Free Tibet is concerned that persistently China-focused headlines are contributing towards overall reporting that is increasingly distorted and presented through a disproportionately Chinese lens and which inadequately represents the Tibetan nature of the tragedy.

Free Tibet is also concerned that misleading headlines risk leading to a future failure to prioritise Tibetan needs when the immediate rescue and relief effort makes way for long-term reconstruction of the stricken area and its overwhelmingly Tibetan population.

China’s politicisation of Tibetan Earthquake

The misleading headlines also risk exacerbating an increasingly apparent effort to politicise the earthquake by the Chinese administration which is eager to emphasise the Chinese-led relief effort and to downplay the prominent role played by Tibetan monks in the immediate relief effort.

An AP article today (2) reported that Tibetan monks who had played a leading role in the rescue effort had been ordered to leave the region. AP reported that no monks were to be seen in extensive coverage on state television of mourning ceremonies which instead emphasised the Chinese role in the relief effort by showing Chinese flags at half-mast and featuring the speech made by Qinghai’s Communist Party Secretary at a ceremony in Yushu.

The government’s role in airbrushing monks from the mourning ceremony was made clear by AP which reported that the orders for the monks to leave Yushu came from the Religious Affairs Bureau of the Ganzi Prefecture Government. AP also reported that the Beijing-based Tibetan poet and activist, Woeser, had learned from her own contacts in the quake zone that monks had been ordered to leave the area against their will by local officials who said “You have to leave now, otherwise there will be trouble”.

Reacting to the news of the forced departure of Tibetan monks from the earthquake scene, Free Tibet spokesperson, Matt Whitticase, said:

“China’s determination to colonise even Tibet’s tragedy is depressingly all too unsurprising. Its expedient airbrushing of Tibetans’ response to a very Tibetan tragedy underlines the importance of the international community acting to ensure that funding for the reconstruction effort is transparent and is aimed specifically at meeting the humanitarian needs of the Tibetan people, rather than the political ends of the Chinese Communist Party and its cronies in Tibet.”

In a separate article published yesterday in The Asia Sentinel (3), the widely respected China analyst, Willy Lam, cited “political sources in Beijing” which said that the Chinese leadership’s main concern in responding to the quake was to limit the political fallout to Yushu and the immediate surrounding area. Lam states in the article that official Chinese media have been ordered to downplay the leading rescue role played by the Tibetan monks when the quake struck. Instead, Lam reports, “The day after the quake, Chinese newspapers and websites were told to focus on "positive" developments, particularly how soldiers, cops, People's Armed Police, fire-fighters and other personnel Beijing has deployed to Qinghai have done a heroic job amidst low-oxygen and sub-zero conditions in the highlands.”

Perhaps the most obvious example, however, of China’s offering a politicised response to the humanitarian disaster caused by the Tibet Earthquake is its ongoing refusal to allow the Dalai Lama to travel to the Tibetan area, despite a request by the Dalai Lama to do so.

Ends

For further information:

Matt Whitticase, External Communications

t +44 (0)20 7324 4605 / +44 (0)7515 788456 and email: matt@freetibet.org

Stephanie Brigden, Director

t +44 (0)20 7324 4605 / +44 (0)7530 528264 and email: stephanie@freetibet.org

Notes to the Editor:

1) Free Tibet’s press release emphasising the Tibetan nature of the tragedy and the need to prioritise Tibetan needs is available at: http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/150410

2) The AP article is available at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gdspdDB0WaMv_An4A-NvHB_DwmCwD9F7CLVO0