"I won't have you saying that!"
(Liu Jun, Guangming Correspondent, Geneva,
2008-05-17 07:37, source: GuangMing Daily)
"I won't have you saying that!" Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, today rebutted certain Western reporter
criticism on China's quake relief based on the so-called "Freedom of the Press".
The attack by severe earthquake in Wenchuan area of China receives strong concerns from the World. Swift and effective relief efforts by the Chinese
Government also gained international approval and a lot of media applauded "China impressed the World".
Yet in midst of Chinese people's heavily involved in their relief work, certain Western reporter tied the so-called "Freedom of the Press" with China's
relief work over a regular Press Briefing in UN's Office at Geneva,Europe, but was strongly countered by the spokesperson of UN, as well as
spokespersons of various UN organizations, who all highly rated China's relief efforts.
In this morning's News Briefing, various UN organizations gave briefing over Chinese progress in its relief, and details on the joint relief efforts by
UN and China. Just when the Briefing was about to end, a Western reporter claimed that Chinese Government's prohibiting Western media from entering the
quake zone for news coverage was a violation of "the Freedom of the Press". His comment was strongly rebutted. Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United
Nations Information Service, not her usual self of being calm and nice, instantly gave a strong response, "I won't have you saying that!" Then she
explained in detail the cooperation of UN with China after Wenchuan's quake. She emphasized that rescue effort is to save lives, an humanity emergency
which should never be tied to other unrelated issues.
Elizabeth Byrs, spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in her reddened eyes and shaken voice, commented that the
rescue was a race with time; the quicker the relief team reached ground zero, the more chance of saving one more life. The prime most important mission
for the first few days after the quake was to rescue lives under the debris. Chinese relief teams faced severe conditions of road blockages which
disabled moving heavy equipments on site. The fact that they rushed to the sites on foot and rescued with bare hands by itself was remarkable. She
stressed that the cooperation between the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and China had been very smooth since the quake. The
principle of rescue relief is to guarantee the swift mobilization of China's own relief forces on site for emergency rescue, and China did not deny
International relief efforts. Other UN spokespersons also expressed that media should be objective and fair, and should not relate humanity relief with
other issues, that they will try their best in assisting Chinain its relief and rebuilding.
Listening to all these voices, from the press area I raised my hand to request to speak. My request was granted and I tried to hold back my emotion to
speak calmly to about a hundred reporters on the scene,"I have to give this uninformed inquirer a lesson of "Geography and Ethics"! China is much
bigger than Europe, and the quake occurred in remote mountain areas in S.W. China. With the severe damage made by the quake, and on top of the bad
weather, even Chinese relief teams were unable to be right on spot in the epic centre area. How will it be possible under such poor transport and
communications conditions, that we, at the expense of saving valuable lives, allow foreign reporters unfamiliar with local condition and languages to be
there first? Western media uses to claim they "cherish Life on top of everything", don't they? Just how could you intervene our life-saving efforts by
the so-called "Freedom of the Press"?! There was a complete silence. (May 16, 2008 Guang Ming Daily, from Geneva) |
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发表于 2008-5-27 17:26:21
