Tibet confrontation overlooked by media?

Susan Clark of Victoria, B.C. comments on something she hasn't heard on Dispatches:

 

Hello, Rick,

I just heard your CBC RadioOne ad which was headlined "Syria is a nation in agony."

I would like to add, emphatically -- as it seems that the media in Canada and the US, including the CBC is unwilling to acknowledge or heed it -- TIBET is a nation in agony.

Nineteen people -- a lama, monks, nuns, and lay people, too -- have self-immolated; eleven are known to have died of their burns. The whereabouts of some is unknown. The Chinese army is reported to have shot dead unarmed protesters recently.

I am a great fan of Dispatches, and have learned a great deal from it. I wonder whether the show, which likes to speak truth in uncomfortable places, would consider a program about the virtual media silence on the situation in Tibet. 

Of course, we all suspect that fear of displeasing Chinese leadership is a part of it. But perhaps China should become accustomed to being treated as other nations are as they move further into the world of international trade?

You've reported on Iran-Contra and you "excel under perilous conditions" according to your bio. Please consider taking on this dark place in international affairs, this media complicity, into some light. As it stands, it seems Tibet must suffer -- no matter the size of the public support (I was at a vigil last night in here in Victoria; I can't tell you how many passing drivers -- and even bicyclists -- honk when they see the HONK FOR A FREE TIBET. You have wonderful articulate spokespeople to call on: Lhadon Tethong, born in Victoria, BC for one (leader of Students for a Free Tibet, probably living in Quebec City -- I don't know). George Stroumboulopoulos interviewed her on the Hour; and she's been on the Current (many years ago). But probably someone less associated with the movement would be interesting, too? This is just media censorship.

We rage and rave about "media blackouts" in Syria and other countries. But the one in Tibet seems to have been effective; there is silence from those who know (lots of footage and information is coming out) and who live in free societies and could speak.

good wishes

ps: I see in a search that CBC TV news had a clip on February 3rd. I am not a CBC TV viewer (don't have a television and rarely watch on line). I don't remember I've heard anything on the CBC Radio in the last months, even years.  And next to the *hourly* updates on the situation in Syria, one guarded mention every six months on the television seems paltry.

From the Dispatches desk.  In the March 1 Dipatches program, we plan to run a piece from India about the debate among Tibetan Bhuddists in exile about whether the faith sanctifies self-immolation, and look at the new outlook among younger exiles. 

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