CRI听力：Western Media Lack Professional Moral: Thai Scholar

The March 14th Lhasa riot has drawn wide attention around the world. Qian Feng, vice director of Asian Daily, says the western media did not exercise ethical judgment in its coverage of the violence in Lhasa. CRI reporter Wu Peng has more.

Reporter:
Qian Feng is vice director and chief editor of Asian Daily, a Thailand-based Chinese-language newspaper. He is a China expert who has been having much concern on the Lhasa riot.

"The media's job is to cover the news, not distort the news or distort the truth. The media cannot describe the Nepalese police dispersing exiled Tibetan protesters as Chinese police arresting Tibetan secessionists. It happened in Nepal. How can it be pinned to China's Tibet Autonomous Region?"

Qian Feng's remarks came after some western media outlets issued retractions for erroneously captioning images of baton-wielding Nepalese police as Chinese police clashing with protesters in Kathmandu.

Qian mentioned one picture released by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The picture, posted on its Web site, shows Chinese Armed Police officers helping medical staff transport a wounded person into an ambulance.

The caption reads "There is a heavy military presence in Lhasa," despite the prominent First Aid and Red Cross signs on the ambulance.

Qian described the Lhasa incident as a riot, not a peace demonstration. He said that can be seen clearly from news photos.

He criticized some German media outlets for their biased reports.

"Some German media have confessed their fault, but they haven't apologized, just say it's a pity. This is not the style of a news professional. It's clear that some people made biased reports, either intentionally or unintentionally."

Qian said he is convinced that the local government in Tibet has treated the issue very cautiously, so its reaction to the incident has been slow, and is one of the reasons the incident had such severe results.

He said the western media's allegation that the results were caused by an immediate armed crackdown is not credible