Eine Freundin aus Thailand, genauer Bangkok hat mir über Facebook den folgenden Text gemailt. Sie arbeitet so ziemlich genau in der Gegend, wo seit Tagen die blutigen Proteste toben. Grund für dieses wütende Email ist die Berichterstattung von CNN Thailand. Ein Video zum Thema von Al Jazeera gibt es am Ende des Textes. Es macht den Anschein, dass einmal mehr die Wahrnehmung im Land anders ist, als das was wir im Rest der Welt präsentiert kriegen... Die Macht der Medien!
Recently, CNN Thailand Correspondents Dan Rivers and Sarah Snider have
made me seriously reconsider your agency as a source for reliable and
accurate unbiased news. As of this writing, over thousands of CNN’s
viewers have already begun to question the accuracy and dependability of
its reporting as regards events in Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Iran,
etc., in addition to Bangkok.
As a first-rate global news
agency, CNN has an inherent professional duty to deliver all sides of
the truth to the global public who have faithfully and sincerely placed
their trust and reliance in you. Your news network, by its longtime
transnational presence and extensive reach, has been put in a position
of trust and care; CNN’s journalists, reporters, and researchers have a
collective responsibility to follow the journalist's code and ethics to
deliver and present facts from all facets of the story, not merely
one-sided, shallow and sensational half-truths. The magnitude of harm or
potential extent of damage that erroneous and fallacious news reporting
can cause to (and exacerbate), not only a country’s internal state of
affairs, economic well-being, and general international perception, but
also the real lives and livelihood of the innocent and voiceless people
of that nation, is enormous. CNN should not negligently discard its duty
of care to the international populace by reporting single-sided or
unverified facts and distorted truths drawn from superficial research,
or display/distribute biased images which capture only one side of the
actual event.
Mr. Rivers and Ms. Snider have NOT done their best
under these life-threatening circumstances because many other foreign
correspondents have done better. All of Mr. Rivers and Ms. Sniders'
quotes and statements seem to have been solely taken from the
anti-government protest leaders or their followers/sympathizers. Yet,
all details about the government’s position have come from secondary
resources. No direct interviews with government officials have been
shown; no interviews or witness statements from ordinary Bangkok
residents or civilians unaffiliated with the protesters, particularly
those who have been harassed by or suffered at the hands of the
protesters, have been circulated.
Why the discrepancy in source
of information? Why the failure to report all of the government’s
previous numerous attempts to negotiate or invitations for protesters to
go home? Why no broadcasts shown of the myriad ways the red protesters
have terrorized and harmed innocent civilians by burning their shops,
enclosing burning tyres around apartment buildings, shooting glass
marbles at civilians from high altitudes, attacking civilians in their
cars, and worst of all, obstructing paramedics and ambulances carrying
civilians injured by M79 grenade blasts during the Silom incident of
April 24, 2010, thereby resulting in the sole civilian casualty? The
entire timeline of events that have forced the government to take this
difficult stance has been hugely and callously ignored in deference to
the red ‘underdogs’.
Mr. Rivers and Ms. Snider’s choice of
sensational vocabulary and terminology in every newscast or news report,
and choice of images to broadcast, has resulted in law-abiding soldiers
and the heavily-pressured Thai government being painted in a negative,
harsh, and oppressive light, whereas the genuinely violent and
law-breaking arm of the anti-government protesters - who are directly
responsible for overt acts of aggression not only against armed soldiers
but also against helpless, unarmed civilians and law-abiding apolitical
residents of this once blooming metropolis (and whose actions under
American law would by now be classified as terrorist activities) – are
portrayed as righteous freedom fighters deserving of worldwide sympathy
and support. This has mislead the various international Human Rights
watchdogs to believe the Thai government are sending trigger-happy
soldiers out to ruthlessly murder unarmed civilians without just cause.
As
a current resident of "war zone" Bangkok who has experienced the effect
of the Red protests first hand and is living in a state of constant
terror and anxiety as to whether her family, friends, and home would get
bombed or attacked by the hardcore anti-government
vigilantes/paramilitary forces - I appeal to CNN's professional
integrity to critically investigate and scrutinize the misinformed news
reporting of your above-named correspondents. If they are incapable of
obtaining genuine, authentic facts from any other source except the Red
Protest leaders and red-sympathizing Thai translators or acquaintances,
or from fellow non-Thai-speaking journalists who are similarly ignorant
of Thai language, culture, history, and society, then perhaps CNN should
consider reassigning field correspondents to Thailand.
I implore
and urge you to please take serious action to correct or reverse the
grave injustice that has been done to the Thai nation, her government,
and the majority of law-abiding Thai citizens and expatriate residents
by having endorsed and widely circulated poorly researched and
misrepresented news coverage of the current ongoing political unrest and
escalating violence in Thailand.
Copies of this open letter
have also been distributed to other local as well as international news
media and social networks for public information. Please feel free to
contact me further should you require any additional concrete and
reputable evidence in substantiation and corroboration of my complaints
and claims stated hereinabove.
