Sevana, before you do
Chinese Network Runs 'Guess the Number of Beslan Dead' Game
News/Comment; Posted on: 2004-09-27 13:11:35
As Revilo P. Oliver said: "You may search the vast and respectable literature of China in vain for any trace of compassion for suffering per se."
by Vasily Bubnov
THE TRAGEDY IN BESLAN made a lot of people think about the way Western media outlets presented Russia in their reports. It is an open secret that Western news agencies prefer to call Chechen terrorists 'rebels.' It could be seen during the hostage crisis in Moscow, after the explosion of suburban trains in the Stavropol region and terrorist acts in the Moscow metro. When terrorists seized the school in Beslan, they were still referred to as 'rebels' in the West.
However, Western journalists have never thought of making a light-hearted entertainment program from such a tragedy. Such a show was created and broadcast in China, though. (ILLUSTRATION: A young mother cries for her child, killed in the Beslan terror attack.)
The Chinese channel CCTV-4 aired theprogram on September 6th -- just a few days after hundreds of children were killed in Beslan. The program was a game show: A host asked a series of questions to contestants, who tried to pick the correct answer from several suggested variants. One of the questions was about the number of victims in the terrorist act in Beslan, North Ossetia. The contestants were supposed to choose the correct number of victims -- from 302 to 402.
The CCTV-4 is a state-owned channel, which broadcasts its programs for a foreign audience.
The program enraged Moscow's politicians, although no leaders expressed their opinions or commented on the situation in their official capacity.
This might be explained by the fact of the recent series of visits of Chinese officials to Moscow; that of Chinese State Council Premier Wen Jiabao being one. The Russian administration apparently decided to not stir up a scandal on the threshold of state negotiations.
It is noteworthy, though, that several managers of the above-mentioned television network were fired. In addition, television companies were prohibited from broadcasting similar programs without permission from the Chinese administration.
Read the original (in Russian)
Translated by Dmitry Sudakov, edited by M. P. Shiel. Submitted by Anna Ossipova.
http://www.nationalvanguard.org/printer.php?id=3903