The APEC controversy...
Clement Ng
... has been totally overblown by the Canadian newspapers. Lost
admist the relentless coverage of Chretien's arrogance, opposition party
expedience (Dick Proctor's leak was a cheap shot and the other parties
couldn't find East Timor if it landed on them), and UBC student stonewalling
is the more critical topic of democratic prospects for Indonesia, now
setback again by the ongoing Asian economic crisis. Indeed, prior to the
APEC story, how many Canadians knew anything about President Suharto's
reign of terror, left out in the dark as they've been by the mainstream
media? Here is a Western press that looked on in horror at the bloody
insurgency of the Khmer Rhouge (these are atrocities carried out by
*communists*!) while simultaneously ignoring the genocide borne out by the
Indonesian invasion of East Timor (these are atrocities carried out by a
*right-wing*, American backed dictator!... oh, wait...). Only now are
editorialists and foriegn policy elities feigning bewilderment.
Likewise, in the wake of Pinochet's arrest, little has been
mentioned by the Western press (with the exception of the *Guardian Weekly*
and the BBC) of U.S. support for Chilean general's violent regime. Whether
one interprets American involvment in South America as imperialism or not,
is not the issue here - the media should, in a balanced manner, report
events as they happen, leaving others to judge U.S. policy. Leave it to a
mainstream media to assiduously cover and analyze conflict in one side of
the world (everyone knows of Northern Ireland), disregarding in turn
conflict on other sides of the world (how many people are familiar with
Kashmir?).
After having seen some dedicated journalists talk about Indonesia,
(they're not writing for the *Ottawa Citizen*; try the *Toronto Star*),
the momentum is now there for the opposition parties to get over their field
day with Liberal fumbling and work instead with the feds to re-examine
Canada's approach towards human rights violations.
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Clement Ng aka "chigger" (not Clementine...)
4th Year Integrated Science, Faculty of Science, Carleton University
E-mail: cn...@chat.carleton.ca
____ __ ______
/ __\ / | / / \ "War cannot be avoided, only postponed to the
/ / / || / / O \ advantages of others."
__ \ \__/_/||/ /\____ /
/ /__\_____/_|__/_____/ / - Niccoli Machiavelli in *The Prince*
/_______________________/
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Daniel McHardie
I take great pride, and even more time, to cover this story. Yes, the
mainstream media has lost touch with the real issues, but really what are
the real?
First it was the right to protest. Then, the right of foreign leaders to
security. Then the right of the RCMP to protect the leaders. Then the
right of the students to hold a peaceful demonstration. Then the right to
a protest without getting pepper-sprayed. Then the right for infomation
from the PMO. Then the crassness of Chretien. Then the loose-lipped
solicitor general. Then the students' lawyers not getting paid. Then the
reasons for a boycott. Then pepper spray, baseball bats or water cannons.
Then did the chair of the PCC Gerald Morin prejudge the inquiry (as if
Andy hadn't already).
Pick an issue.
The entire story is an issue. I don't expect anyone that doesn't have a
media background to understand the complexity of covering such an issue.
If you give me a daily paper and free reign of stories, then I think we
could make things happen, but until then, just read the Charlatan! ;-)
DJM
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Daniel McHardie
Carleton University
Third-year Journalism
"I think therefore I am." - Descartes
"You are not me, therefore you are irrelevant." - Dogbert
e-mail address: hit reply you idiot!
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Clement Ng
Please don't take offence Daniel. All of what you say is true -
this story does indeed have many angles and the ineptness of the Liberal
establisment keeps getting worse all the time. However, I did not say that
the media should not be covering at all the student walkout, the dangers of
pepper-spray, the next smug comment to be made by Chretien, the threatened
independence of the CBC, the RCMP's chain-of-command problems, etc. I'm
simply pleading for a little bit of balance - I certainly don't expect the
newspapers to devote all their pages to international affairs. Yet the major
dalies have not, for the most part, published any in-depth stories about
President Suharto's brutal legacy. Any story about Indonesia usually focuses
only on how the Asian economic crisis is affecting Canada. Only the *Toronto
Star*, for example, has reported the rape of Chinese women in Indonesia.
Then there's the whole issue of objectivity and impartiality. Why
did the Western press go crazy over Serb massacres during the Yugoslavian
conflict, when independent reports now confirm that all three sides in the
conflict were guilty of genocide? Could it have anything to do with the
quiet Russian backing of the Serbs? Likewise, its sad to see the press
claim that they never knew the extent of human rights abuses in Indonesia.
I'm not the only person who's concerend - read Robert Summerville's letter
in today's Citizen (Observer section, B6).