Dialogue 09/07/10 Media coverage of unrest in Xinjiang

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Intro:

Hello, I am Yang Rui reporting live from Beijing. Again today we focus on the unrest northwestern China’s Xinjiang. China is learning how to improve crisis management, which has become a very important pre-requisite for preserving social stability during the period of social and economic transformation.

A lot of media observers, Chinese and foreign alike, say that the Chinese media is able to respond more quickly to give a more complete and objective picture about the breaking social events. At the same time, following the Beijing Olympics, overseas media is given better access to the sources of news stories. But, are they able to provide objective and impartial reports? Why did some European correspondents insist that the rioting in Urumqi was initially peaceful?

Is it correct to compare the anti-rioting campaign to a crackdown on what they called pro-democracy movements? Today we are joined live here by Mr. Gregory Yingnien Tsang, former Chairman of the Seattle Chapter of NACA, and professor Shi Anbin from the school of journalism of Tsinghua University. In a few minute we are going to talk to Xu Zhaoqun, our correspondent who is waiting on the phone in Urumqi, capital city of Xinjiang in a short telephone interview.