Perspectives
By Global Journalist Staff Posted Wed, Sep 1 1999
PHILIP MATHEW, India – Managing editor and director of Malayala Manorama
The death of three Chinese journalists was bound to arouse an emotional reaction in China, but the scale of the protest was surprising because such a massive show of anger had never been allowed in China.
Authorities in China used the state media to build up support for Beijing’s opposition to the NATO action. They projected Slobodan Milosevic as a hero and Bill Clinton as the aggressor. Chinese authorities were uncomfortable with NATO because they feared the strikes could set a precedent. China has reason to be wary because it faces ethnic unrest in the Muslim provinces in the northwest and in Tibet.
NATO’s argument that it was necessary to bomb Serbian television stations is also hard to accept. Were Serbian journalists responsible for the crisis in Kosovo?
The Serbian TV centers might have been targeted because they presented their side of the story somewhat accurately. For example, Yugoslav television was the first to report the downing of the F-117 stealth fighter and the capture of the three American soldiers.
The Yugoslav people had the right to know what their government had to say about the war. Denying that right to them amounts to censorship.
EDUARDO ULIBARRI, Costa Rica – Editor in Chief of La Nacion
Autocrats know how to manipulate media for their own ends. They squelch journalistic freedom and keep news outlets as weapons for political control, especially when a military threat is involved. Serbian journalists became victims of the war even before it started, either due to severe controls placed upon them by Milosevic’s government or, worse, by becoming part of his propaganda machine.
The three Chinese journalists killed in the bombing of their Belgrade embassy were also victims. Like most Chinese journalists, they were part of a government-controlled communications apparatus.
Does all this excuse the killings of the Chinese journalists or the destruction of Serbian television facilities during the conflict? By no means. But it certainly puts the blame not only on NATO but also on the Chinese and Serb governments for making the press part of a deliberate propaganda machine and using journalists as its compulsory elements. The Western press also has a blame to carry for its difficulty to understand the nature of both despotic regimes and democratic military machines. It is important to avoid manipulation and control not only from Slobodan Milosevic but also from NATO’s commander, Gen. Wesley Clark.
OLLI KIVINEN, Finland – Senior editor and columnist for the Helsingin Sanomat
The Chinese embassy bombing proved that all government bureaucracies are capable of blunders. For the Chinese, the bombing provided an opportunity to further their anti-bombing case and play internal power games.
Killing journalists, aid workers, diplomats and others who are not participants in the conflict must be condemned. But a government’s use of tragic incidents to fan hatred against other nations is equally wrong and does nothing to ease tensions or to build peace. Xenophobia is a bad enough phenomenon by itself, but officially encouraged demonstrations in China after the bombing aggravated the anti-foreigner attitudes one sees so often in China.
The attack against TV offices in Belgrade was also clearly wrong and must not be accepted. One side in a conflict should never be allowed to decide what is propaganda. That is dangerous because it can lead to the mindless labeling of journalists. That label can, in turn, lead to their deaths.
NATO’s bombing of transmitting facilities works against the free flow of information. The alliance does not realize that the harshest propaganda can easily turn against its perpetrators. Viewers can find ways to decipher the truth, even from TV reports glossed and edited by the state.
BRANKO MAKSIMOVIC, Slovenia – Editor of the Ljubliana offiice of the daily newspaper Vecer
The NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade is a disgrace for the Pentagon and the CIA. The Chinese Embassy victims will remain dead no matter how harsh the protests. The deceased are now unfortunately being abused for political goals.
It is an old truth that a word can also be a weapon. The power of propaganda was best illustrated by Josef Goebbels, who almost single-handedly controlled the press during Nazi-era Germany. With the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Milosevic and his cohorts used Goebbels’ methods to perfection.
Their first victim was Slovenia when it chose independence. Since the early 1980s, Slovenia had been the target of numerous poison arrows in the form of misinformation and half-truths. Nevertheless, in a public statement last autumn, I expressed solidarity with our former colleagues in Serbia who have been completely subordinated by the Milosevic regime.
Although the destruction of the transmitters and other links in Serbia’s television network could be judged as understandable, there is no excuse for the destruction of newsrooms and other civilian targets, no matter how much harm Serbian journalists have been doing.