Tibet triggers off domestic media battle

Image from WikipediaNot enough time, but this translation by ESWN is too interesting to ignore. It details the debate - or the lack thereof - triggered off on the role of the traditional media in China, after Tibet became a hot issue in both domestic and international media.
Editor Chang Ping of the Southern Metropolis Daily in his blog on the difficult situation the Chinese media are, when they have to defend their country against international criticism.

According to certain netizens who were exposing the fake reporting by overseas media, they want to use their action to show the truth about Lhasa to the world. This assertion is logically incorrect, because their actions can only let people see that the western media are not reporting the truth accurately. But what happened in Lhasa? Most Chinese people have only seen the unified press release issued by their government several days later. When the news comes from a single exclusive source, I cannot say that it is fake but I cannot accept that it is true either. The overseas media have mostly described this as "the truth that the Chinese government has carefully scripted."

In short, because the Chinese media could not report accurately about what happened in Lhasa and Tibet, they could not be part of the international debate. After criticizing the way the editor makes a rather logic observation:

But what about us and the ethnic minorities? If we use nationalism as the weapon to resist the westerners, then how can we persuade the ethnic minorities to abandon their nationalism and join the mainstream nation-building? The Dalai Lama asked the Chinese government to reassess him, so what kind of person is he really? Apart from the official government position, will the media be permitted to discuss the matter freely and uncover more truths?

Who knows the Chinese internet a bit could not be surprised about some of the fierce reactions:

Chang Ping is a Chinese traitor and the Southern Metropolis Daily is the Chinese edition of CNN.

The debate continues.