Many in the West and Hong Kong mistakenly believe that mainland Chinese are unthinking and uncritical. On the contrary, one consequence of life behind China’s Great Firewall is a hypersensitivity to the veracity of information
The Chinese people are aware of the censorship and in many ways are less gullible than the unsuspecting Western public who believe our media is fair and free.
There isn't a lot of censorship in China, in fact, most of the Western MSM is allowed, but I know the Intercept is banned because in the past it has been very critical of the CPC. The Intercept has found away around this, and most Chinese people know how to get around China’s Great Firewall anyway.
Take the example of the Hong Kong protests. Do people in the West genuinely believe they possess a fair and balanced picture on the ground?
All mainstream media label the protests “pro-democracy”, but do they report on the protesters’ exercise of hate speech, use of racial slurs, non-discriminating assaults on mainland Chinese and pro-Beijing Hong Kong properties, violent destruction of public infrastructure, vicious threats against family member of police officers, and terrorising tactics such as online bullying and street fights to silence whoever dares to have different political views?
SCMP
Do the ends justify the means?
ReplyDeleteIn other words, are the demands of the HK protests reasonable?
If they are reasonable, are the means of obtaining their demands justified?
Inform the reader of the demands and tactics being employed, and allow the reader to decide for themselves. To portray these protests in a negative or positive light is evidence of bias. To portray them as + or - by omitting information, is propaganda.
That being said, violence is usually a poor tactic, when your opponent has the capacity to inflict greater violence.
Also bear in mind that when you are a spectator to an event, you don't have to have an opinion on it. Exercising that option can be liberating.