Upholding press freedom

Western media's "double standards"

The ACJA also cast doubt on the "freedom of press" upheld by Western media organizations which, paradoxically, used "double standards" in coverage of a deadly knife attack in southwest China's Kunming.

"The Western media, which always shout for anti-terrorism, human rights and objective coverage, have turned a blind eye to the terrorist attack in Kunming," the association said. "Some even defended the brutal acts and sought excuses for them," it added. Some media assumed an ambiguous attitude toward the terrorists, calling them "attackers" or "activists" instead of terrorists, it said.

Terrorists with knives slashed frantically at crowds at a railway station in Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan Province on March 1, killing 29 people and injuring 143. "Obviously, it's double standards," the association said. "They have violated the principle of objectivity and lack professional ethics."

(China Daily 05/17/2014 page6)