Our colleagues at @tibettruth have been exposing how mainstream media is peddling China’s propaganda on Tibet and have been given tremendous support from many friends and subscribers on Twitter. One such person  @PaulBarasi wrote a formal complaint to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and has very kindly provided a copy, which is posteed below.

“BBC place ‘balanced fair accurate reporting’ above truth and won’t accept responsibility for the impact of what and how you report. Your webpage “The Tibet issue” is deplorable: giving China ‘s position, acting as their mouthpiece when they are world’s biggest spenders on lying propaganda and deny free speech themselves. What you report gets tweeted round the world as headlines like ” China blasts Tibet clash hype” giving people a false perspective. To cover Tibet by what both sides say is as wrong as giving the Nazi position on why the Jews must be exterminated, but presumably BBC thinks that would have been right too.  

Continuous violation by the Chinese Government of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and their own law code is not drawn out in your reports, nor the background of disappearances, torture, enforced sterilization and persecution by China in occupied Tibet as falling under the UN definition of  ‘crimes against humanity’.

 BBC is one reason why the Government gets away with taking such a weak position. BBC colludes by failing to challenge Government on the many questions that need asking (why the FCO response to the shootings was so little, so late, weaker than US, made by a minister not the Foreign Secretary and then not followed up; why they place trade above human rights; why they refuse to support Tibet’s independence  …). In rejecting this complaint, doubtless you will supply transcripts of programmes asking Ministers such questions.”

Take for example a recent contribution from a Robert Barnett, who offered his opinions on China’s response to the recent self-immolations in Tibet, he seems to invest considerable effort in explaining and justifying the motives and actions of China’s Regime. Unfortunately his writing appears to travel far beyond impartial academic examination and reflects a reasoning and language that bears a worrying similarity to that promoted by Xinhua, China’s official mouthpiece. A master of extenuation and sly circumspection note the following  misrepresentations:

“This is sometimes overstated – it is not at all correct, for example, that all areas of Tibetan culture are being targeted for annihilation by China, as some exiles claim – but it is true that some sectors of the culture and community are singled out for harassment by the state, often in ways that most Chinese would be shocked by.” (Emphasis added)

Well the oppressed people of Tibet will be thankful to hear from Mr Barnett that they are able to enjoy their culture in relatively unrestricted fashion, and that their experiences of China’s tyranny and vicious repression are seemingly overstated. Apart from this artful promotion of China’s deception, that Tibet’s cultural traditions and freedoms are respected and protected the author peddles another cynical fabrication that is regularly featured on the pages of China’s propaganda sheets.

“For 30 years, money has been poured into minority areas to build their economies and staunch unrest..” (Emphasis added)

This assertion may well have been drawn from the poisoned pages of China Daily which often trumpets such disinformation along with staged images of seemingly grateful Tibetans, it is puzzling why Robert Barnett chooses not to apply critical examination on such claims. Disappointing too that he declines to mention that investment in occupied Tibet is targeted, not for the betterment of Tibetans, but to consolidate and expand China’s colonization of  Tibet and advance its policy of assimilation. Not content with such falsification the author exposes as questionable any position of  neutrality by repeating China’s bogus claim that Tibet’s a minority area of China!  Having presented such distortions Robert Barnett concludes his article with a touching demonstration of faith in the supposed goodness of Chen Quanguo, China’s recently appointed Tibet Czar.

“In August, a new Chinese leader was appointed in Tibet who has a background in economics rather than in “handling” minorities, and he has been well received for making sure that all of this year’s university graduates in Tibet were given jobs. this week he announced that “pension, medical insurance and the minimum living allowances” will be covered for monks at every monastery.” (Emphasis added)

Well received by the oppressed and tortured Tibetans? Did they throng the streets of Lhasa chanting the name of Chen Quanguo? It will of course be known to the author that such claims are propagandist in nature and that, far from being a generous form of welfare, are yet another lever of control to suppress protests. Through engineering an economic dependency and threat of withdrawing such funding, to either individuals and or monasteries engaged in political dissent. Reaching that conclusion however would require a willingness to recognize China’s occupation of Tibet for what it truly is, a fact Robert Barnett seems dedicated to obscuring , choosing instead to misrepresent Tibetan protests as a reaction to religious, social and economic policy. The implication suggested here is that should there be by China an improvement and moderation in such measures Tibetan protests would diminish. That grossly misreads the central reason of Tibetan demonstrations and resistance, which as the author is fully aware is a common demand and aspiration for Tibet’s independence. Now why would Robert Barnet wish to avoid and conceal that truth?

Mark Scanlon Repeating China's Propaganda

Image:archivenet

The BBC, recently returned from a ‘World Media Summit’ hosted in Beijing by China’s propaganda agency Xinhua, must be feeling rather pleased with its ongoing efforts to placate China’s regime. An extension of the British political establishment the organization, while widely known as a public service broadcaster, is also a valued and influential component of British foreign policy initiatives. Particularly in relation to China where its presence is used to support and promote British interests, the arrangement is not singular as China’s authorities are ever keen to exploit the huge news network offered by the BBC. Broadcasts on issues such as Tibet show an an increasing bias towards official Chinese policy and ideology, leading some to charge the organization with becoming a conduit for China’s propaganda. It’s difficult not share this conclusion when assessing the BBC’s reportage on Tibet, which rather than offer independent, critical and balanced perspective (demanded by its own operating commitments) often simply regurgitates without examination or context official Chinese views or claims.

The most recent example surfaced via the respected BBC World Service in an item by one Mark Scanlon. Broadcast on Friday October 7 and featured in a program called ‘World Briefing’ the reporter was detailing the latest incidents of self-immolation by Tibetans at the monastery in Kirti. His account was peppered with misleading terminology that would meet the unreserved applause of China’s propaganda agency and reinforced two very important ideological claims used by China’s regime. Asserting what in reality are occupied Tibetan territory as being Chinese and misrepresenting legitimate Tibetan political protests as ‘riots’ (a spin used by China following the 2008 national uprisings in Tibet). Mr Scanlon’s report happily amplified such distortions and offered further misrepresentations. Setting the scene for listeners he describes the location of Kirti monastery as being :

“..on the Tibetan plateau, but within the south western Chinese province of Sichuan“ (emphasis added)

This is a falsehood that endorses China’s cynical rewriting of Tibetan lands it occupies through military invasion, the monastery in question is actually near a place called Ngaba in Amdo region of East Tibet, a fact Mr Scanlon chose to ignore. Note also his deliberate use of the geographical term ‘Tibetan Plateau’ an expression favored by China it avoids all association of Tibet as a political or national entity. Not content with misinforming the audiences with such sleight-of-hand the report continued:

“Most of the complaints seem to focus on the tight surveillance and control maintained by Chinese security forces around the monastery” (emphasis added)

What a sly choice of terminology we have here at a stroke diluting and distorting the nature, causal factors and origins that have lead to the recent spate of suicides by Tibetans. Such misrepresentation is made worse by his nuanced implication that should controls be lessened that Tibetan resentment and protest would cease. With just a few clicks of the mouse those lacking the journalistic credentials and experience of Mark Scanlon would soon discover that Kirti monastery and the region of Ngaba has witnessed a series of pro-independence demonstrations which were viciously suppressed by Chinese forces leading to  the slaughter of unarmed Tibetans during 2008  Such disturbing realities and political context do not appear to have registered with the reporter, who instead seems determined to present this as some form of resentment at religious restriction only.

Having painted such a distorted portrait, one no doubt much to the liking of China’s tyrannical regime, he continued:

“…hundreds of monks were reported to have been taken away for reducation earlier this year” (Emphasis added)

What a superb example of nuance, so understated and dilute that listeners could be forgiven for imagining Tibetan monks being helped gently onto a coach to be offered courses in some well resourced educational center. Would Mr Scanlon’s report have suffered had he used the terms ‘arbitrary arrests’ ‘prison’ or ‘enforced indoctrination’? Such terms would of course not be welcomed by the BBC’s hosts in Beijing! In closing this section of his account Mark Scanlon (in the unedited broadcast) also described the Tibetan demonstrations of 2008 as ‘riots’, another phrase China’s authorities uses to distort public opinion, against what were legitimate political protests against China’s occupation of Tibet.

Are we witnessing balanced, objective, or independent reportage at work here, or is the BBC again demonstrating a willingness to represent China’s distortions on Tibet, as part of a broader policy of appeasement, perhaps agreed and orchestrated at a senior level, towards foreign policy objectives that aim to maintain and secure positive relations with China ?

Communist China’s machinery of media manipulation, so slyly successful during the earthquake in Sichuan 2008, the  Tibetan uprising of that year, and also applied during the violent suppression of Uyghur protests in Urumchi in 2009, has once again moved into duplicitous and cynical action. China’s totalitarian regime is obsessed with control, and ever careful to present, a troublingly uncritical world, images which conform to its ideology, political agenda and public relations objectives. It must be remembered that the communist party of China is engaged in a psychological and ideological war to polish its somewhat tarnished international image, and equally importantly assert its claims over areas of intense sensitivity such as Tibet and East Turkestan.

Natural disasters, such as the current earthquake, particular given the fact its has struck within a traditional and once independent Tibetan region, affords China’s propaganda Ministry a valuable opportunity to enforce such objectives. Aware of the international attention this tragic event has attracted the communist authorities are taking all measures to engineer a suitably pro-China media profile, one that promotes sympathy for ‘China’s loss and admiration for its response. Central to that calculation is a cynical manipulation and control of international media reportage by asserting that the earthquake took place, not in Tibetan territory, but within so-called Qinghai Province (an imposed Chinese name upon annexed Tibetan regions of Amdo and Kham following China’s invasion of 1950).  Beijing was very quick to extract as much propaganda value as possible by cold-heartedly promoting  this event as ‘China’s earthquake’, the destruction, deaths and injuries suffered by ‘Chinese’ people; and the rescue efforts, triumphantly administered by ‘heroic’ Chinese forces. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8621800.stm It has learned very valuable lesson in terms of media spin from events in Tibet and East Turkestan, now it has a complaint western media on a very tight leash, not that such control seems to bother some major media organizations. Only last year Beijing hosted a number of international media moguls to a lavish party and conference http://tibettruth.com/2009/10/08/media-moguls-party-in-beijing/ at which no doubt cordial reactions and discrete agreements were reached concerning press coverage of China.

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Communist China’s official propaganda mouthpiece, Xinhua has imposed what is effectively blanket reportage, dominating subsequent media exposure of the earthquake on the Internet and via broadcasters by crafting its preferred news-narrative and as ever monitoring and censoring open discussion across China’s internet. According to a some reports, a prominent Chinese social site, Baidu, has censored any discussion of the Tibetan earthquake, by preventing any searches for the term ’Qinghai’. Meanwhile news agencies in the region are robotically following the dictates issued by communist China’s propaganda chief in so-called ‘Qinghai’, one Jidi Majia who has demanded that China’s media act ‘responsibly’ (a euphemism for compliance and obedience to the state) An item in the New Yorker quoted Jidia demanding China’s media:

 “To be responsible, to strengthen the role of guiding public opinion, strengthen political consciousness in propaganda work. We must be ready to accommodate media from outside the province, and let everyone see the spirit of the Qinghai Province people, see that we are not afraid of difficulties.”

Image: reuters

Foreign media have certainly been ‘accommodated’ and for obedient compliance to the tightly controlled demands of reporting within communist China, they are rewarded with daily propaganda sessions, which barely pose as press briefings, permitted ‘access‘ to restricted sites, and an occasional interview with a rescue official or medical worker. Through such manipulation and by encouraging certain favoured journalists and ‘responsible’ media organizations, the communist Chinese authorities are able to peddle their disinformation to a gullible international audience. So we have news reports across the Internet, TV and Radio uncritically repeating China’s cynical fabrications, no doubt the communist authorities sought to maximise the opportunity to encourage international sympathy by callously misrepresenting this earthquake as one that struck China and the Chinese people. Such deception of course would be far harder to achieve without the supine cooperation of some prominent and globally influential media outlets such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).  An organization with a worrying record of peddling Chinese disinformation http://tibettruth.com/2009/07/19/communist-china-to-screen-bbc-whitewash-of-tibet/ and which was found ‘guilty’ by its own Commissioners of promoting Chinese propaganda on Tibet. http://tibettruth.com/2009/05/29/bbc-peddled-chinese-propaganda/ Interestingly the coverage of the earthquake by the BBC is in stark contrast to that of its English rival, Independent Television News, which we are informed was reporting on events and mentioning Tibet, Tibetans and even the Dalai Lama.

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The BBC’s coverage of events on April 14 was extremely careful to avoid any reference whatsoever to either ‘Tibet’ or ‘Tibetans‘, instead hourly news bulletins referred to ‘Qinghai Province’ and ‘Western China’ and chose not to inform its viewers and listeners that the victims were mostly Tibetans or that this was a Tibetan region. The reports may well have been drafted by China’s propaganda agency and no doubt greatly pleased the Chinese authorities, who would be desperate to prevent Tibetans receiving any more international sympathy. It may not be realized by those-of-us not based in England, but the BBC is part of a political establishment and closely associated with, and funded by, the English Foreign Office. That Government Department, which is the equivalent to the Department of State, has long followed a course of appeasing China to secure and maintain trade relations. It is implacably opposed to any idea of an independent Tibet and rejects any notion of Tibetan national identity. It’s advisers act as the pre-eminent authority on all things China, and the BBC’s policy on China is largely determined by such attitudes, which would explain its shameful reportage and willingness to regurgitate what was official Chinese propaganda.

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Sadly it is not only within major media such as the BBC that such censorship and misrepresentation occurs, those kind-hearted individuals who work within NGOs trying to bring limited aid to Tibetans find themselves in the ethically difficult and sensitive position of having to collaborate with the occupying Chinese Regime. In order to operate within Chinese occupied Tibet they are forced to make troubling compromises, imposing upon themselves a censorship of silence on overtly political and issues sensitive to the Chinese regime. While their limited efforts to aid Tibetans is to be applauded, they are in effect being manipulated and exploited by China for purposes of propaganda. In terms of moral principle collaboration with a tyranny such as communist China’s is extremely troubling and their complicity inevitably raises questions that NGO engagement legitimizes China’s occupation  Whatever the facts of that fraught area of debate, it certainly results in a censorship from those who have chosen to ‘cooperate’ with the communist authorities, as any criticism or exposure of sensitive subjects will mean no further visas!

Take this example http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2010/04/100414_china_quake_hs.shtml which featured in the BBC’s radio coverage of the earthquake on April 14, involving two NGO reports by Mr Francis Markus of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Ms. Diana Dodd,  who works with Rokpa that runs projects inside Chinese occupied Tibet, Commenting on the situation in Jyekundo, following the devastation of the earthquake, during the entire interview neither person, no doubt compassionate and dedicated supporters of Tibet’s people, made a reference to either ‘Tibetans’ or Jyekundo when outlining the situation. Were we witnessing a self-imposed censorship by these NGOs, or some cynical editing by the BBC?  Whatever the case, the truth was misrepresented and China’s propaganda objectives dutifully supported. The traumatized Tibetans of Jyekundo, who will be once again under the oppressive rule of the very forces, which so willingly posed for the appeasing lenses of western media,  have little to thank China’s ever so supportive and compliant friends for.

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This staggering display of craven appeasement http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/25/content_11429176.htm   no doubt has its origins in the close relationship between the BBC and the British Foreign Office, whose senior officials share an Establishment ideology that has for decades dominated the British governmental  landscape. Many executives (apart unusually from John Smith) from both organisations come from privileged socio-economic backgrounds, having attended public schools and top universities such as Cambridge and Oxford See This Article  Such conformist conditioning is a highly productive conveyor belt for Britain’s political and media elite. Given this background it is not entirely surprising to note how often the BBC will serve as a willing conduit for Foreign Office thinking, particularly concerning a policy which appeases communist China. The BBC has a very disturbing record indeed in excusing, distorting and concealing the brutal realities of China’s illegal occupation of Tibet and East Turkestan

http://tibettruth.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/bbc-peddled-chinese-propaganda/
http://tibettruth.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/communist-china-to-screen-bbc-whitewash-of-tibet/

Its troubling collaboration with China’s totalitarian regime, to promote occupied Lhasa as a dream-destination, is a new low, and should be forcefully challenged by all those who value human rights, justice and freedom for the peoples of Tibet and East Turkestan. As so precisely noted by the Tibetan Blogger, Jigme Duntak

“This decision by the BBC must be reversed. By choosing to collaborate with the Chinese government in publicizing Lhasa’s tourism the BBC will only add to the exploitation of Tibetan culture, the marginalization of Tibetans in Tibet by supporting the dominance of Chinese owned businesses and enterprises who overwhelmingly control the tourism industry in Lhasa, and the spread of the Chinese propaganda on Tibet that is administered to the tourists in Tibet.

The tourism industry of Lhasa is a manipulated extortion of Tibetan culture. Tourists are only permitted to see only a Chinese government filtered version of Tibetan history and culture. The true nature of China’s violent invasion, occupation, subjugation, and exploitation is carefully omitted or denied as lies. Tourists are fed a false portrayal of a happy and prosperous Tibetan people who are accepting of a foreign Chinese government, yet from the spring uprisings of last year we see that this neo-communist-Shangri-La is nothing but a mockery of the truth.

As has been reported by Andrew Fischer, a fellow at the London School of Economics and author of “State Growth and Social Exclusion in Tibet: Challenges of Recent Economic Growth,” and also by the Gongmeng Law Research Center’s “investigative report into the social and economic causes of the 3.14 incident in Tibetan areas,” Tibetans are increasingly discriminated and excluded from development or prosperity in their own homeland. Han Chinese outsiders increasingly control the local businesses in Tibet, and recent development strategies implemented by the Chinese government have only intensified this growing problem.

Tibetans inside Tibet are denied basic human rights, such as the freedom of movement and freedom of speech. On September 30th, 2006, Kelsang Namtso, a 17 year old nun, attempted to leave Tibet via the Nangpa La pass and was shot dead by Chinese soldiers. On August 1st, 2007, Runggye Adak at a horse-racing festival in Lithang seized the microphone during a speech and called for the return of the Dalai Lama and the release of the Panchen Lama and Tenzin Delek (a Lama from Lithang who was sentenced to life in prison for alleged involvement in terrorism), and the independence of Tibet. Addak was subsequently arrested and charged with four counts of ‘crimes’ ranging from disruption of law and order to state subversion and sentenced to eight years of imprisonment with deprivation of political rights for four years.

This is the oppressive reality of Tibet tourists and the outside world are not allowed to see. Anytime we have seen the emergence of the real Tibet, we have also seen the Chinese government react by quickly shutting down the activities of tourists and foreign media inside of Tibet and a subsequent fabrication of the events in order to prevent the outside world, and even the Chinese people, from seeing the bleak reality of life in Tibet for Tibetans.

This is a reality that tourist traveling to Tibet must also accept. Those who travel to Tibet must accept the surveillance of plain-clothes Chinese authorities, restriction of travel to certain areas of Tibet, and a denial of the right to speak or express themselves freely.

As citizens of freedom-loving nations who enjoy the rights of liberty we cannot accept the denial of the basic human rights and liberties of Tibetans inside Tibet, we cannot accept the BBC’s support for the perpetuation and expansion of the exploitation of Tibetan culture and marginalization of Tibetan people, and we also cannot travel to Tibet and accept the denial of our own basic human rights and liberties. If we were to do so we would not only accept and validate this injustice but we would also cheapen the value of our own liberties that so many have fought for and so many around the world still fight for”. Extract from http://tibettalk.wordpress.com/author/tibettalk/

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Yet the presentation being offered by China’s Ministry of Propaganda is that stability and order have now been returned to East Turkestan, achieved through martial law and thousands of troops patrolling the streets. Meanwhile we are informed that the Chinese brutes who have clubbed their way across Urumchi the past few days have now been put back in their box by the communist authorities. Of course there is always the suspicion that such thugs were in part an orchestrated effort, or at least tolerated by Chinese authorities, whose massively armed forces appeared curiously impotent and indifferent when faced with  mobs carrying sticks!

Interestingly the international media is largely conforming to what is a somewhat slanted  picture of events, China must be rubbing its hands with glee to see reporters ignoring the political causes of unrest, the decades of injustice and human rights violations suffered by Uyghurs, distracted by what it happily portrays as inter-ethnic violence. Such reportage fails miserably to grasp the underlying reality that gave birth to the protest by Uyghurs on Sunday July 5 and is careful to overlook the role of the occupying Chinese regime. Shamefully it is almost impossible to find any extensive or meaningful news coverage that enquires into how so many peaceful Uyghur demonstrators lost their life on that day. No question of a massacre by China’s security forces was considered. Instead we have a carefully constructed image, assembled and managed by China, that deflects any attention away from causual factors, or the role of Chinese forces, by focussing on the subsequent thuggery which erupted on the streets of Urumchi. A report in today’s English newspaper, The Guardian reveals the nature of official control exerted by the Chinese authorities over foreign journalists, a Chinese government notice issued to the foreign media said:

“Till now, the ’7.5 [July 5] Beating, Smashing, Grabbing and Firing Severe Violent Criminal Event’ has been under effective control. The normal social order, production and people’s life have been restored and all the following-up measures have been conducted systematically.”

The communist authorities then assured journalists that its ‘press officials’ would continue to help journalists cover events, adding that:

“For your convenience and safety, the press centre would like to remind all the reporters that [sic] please follow the related Chinese regulations and rules voluntarily during your interview, do not conduct any activities contradicted to your professionalism. Especially, do not agitate the ethnic [sic] animosity and provoke the ethnic [sic] relationships with improper questions.”(emphasis added)

Sadly, many media outlets, with the honourable exception of the Financial Times http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f21598a0-6a24-11de-ad04-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss   have complied with such suffocating restrictions and uncritically consumed and published that perspective, including major news channels such as the BBC.

This suits the political and propaganda objectives of the communist regime, which appears to have learned a number of manipulative lessons from its experience during the Uprisings in Tibet of 2008, although again there was a concentration on what was claimed to be ethnic violence. Such artifice enables China to appear distanced from events, concealing its state-engineered injustices and violations with a carefully constructed fabrication that misrepresents the factual nature of events. Key to such a distortion is to deny any political legitimacy to demonstrations, which themselves are a direct response to communist Chinese occupation, by actively transforming protests. Any one who observed matters in Tibet last year will notice  a familiar pattern, one that  suggests a covert strategy is at work, in which demonstrations are effectively hi-jacked,  their political objectives and demands buried under an engineered violence, and then subsequently presented as riotous and criminal activity, supporting the fiction that the Chinese authorities are simply trying to restore social order. What many journalists have chosen to ignore is that it’s the violence and oppression of the Chinese state against the Uyghurs of East Turkestan that is responsible for the tragic scenes on Urumchi’s streets. Until justice and freedom is returned to the region the propaganda words of  Urumchi’s Chinese-controlled Mayor, Jerla Isamudin,  “Under the correct leadership of the regional party committee and government… the situation is now under control.” will remain a hollow and perverse lie.

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Following on from the 2008 film, ‘A Year in Tibet’, which was a shameful distortion of life inside Tibet http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/bbc-whitewashes-tibet.html  the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has again found itself in hot-water, this time as a result of permitting a pro-Chinese perspective on Tibet to dominate a feature on its Radio Four’s flagship ‘Today’ program.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/29/bbc-trust-tibet-radio-4-today

The show promoted  a highly selective and sympathetic view towards Chinese rule in Tibet, during March 2008, generating a number of complaints, which have been upheld by the BBC Trust. Rather like their colleagues in the British Foreign Office, in respect to Tibet the BBC appears to be sensitive towards communist China and happy to conceal the facts about the ongoing oppression and violations inside Tibet and East Turkestan.