Reporters at Lhasa riot condemns distorted media coverage

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Reporters for the March 14 Lhasa riot condemned the distorted coverage by some Western media, saying some of their Western counterparts were against journalism ethics -- which is to report events on the basis of facts.

"I am angry at my foreign counterparts' disloyalty to their professionalism. They are not making stories out of the right and true," said Zheng Zhaohong, a reporter with the China Central Television (CCTV).

According to the reporter's accounts, he was at Barkhor Street near Jokhang Temple of Lhasa at around 5 p.m. on March 14.

"The prosperity and peace that we used to have in the streets was replaced by chaos. The moment I arrived, the government was mobilizing citizens to clean up the mess. People even can not walkthrough some alleys as they were full of hardware fragments, glass pieces and broken chairs," he said.

"In the busy market area where the riot started, a four-storey building was burnt off and I could still smell the burnt plastics and rubber," said the reporter.

Zheng said he was "shocked" to see the scene.

"The Lhasa riot was criminal activities organized, premeditated and masterminded by the Dalai clique," he said.

Another eyewitness to the riot, Gaisang Dawa, a Tibetan reporter with the Tibet branch of Xinhua News Agency, said he could not believe his eyes when the riot happened.

"The mobsters were smashing cars, chasing innocent people with knives and setting fire to stores. Burning stores could be seen all around me," the reporter said.

He said the untruthful reports carried by some Western media were to serve other purposes.

"There was such a picture, in which a group of mobsters were hitting the police car with stones, but some Western media removed part of it and left the police car the only visible image," he said.

"They used this picture against the Chinese government by saying that the troops are suppressing the locals, which is totally groundless," Gaisang Dawa said.