Mr Robert James Parsons is an American journalist working for the Swiss daily newspaper Le Courier and some American magazines, he is correspondent at the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva.
What are your main reproaches considering coverage of mainstream media during conflicts ?
My reproach is that the media do not question what is behind the conflict. For example in Sri Lanka, the reporting is all about the government and the Tamil Tigers. There is gigantic amount of manipulation there particularly since the truce was broken last January. At that time according to the opinion polls carried on in Sri Lanka. The polls were saying roughly 80-85% on both sides favored a peaceful resolution and they believed it was possible. And then the government broke the truce and started this warfare with the view that they would destroy the Tamil population if necessary to retake this land. It goes back to what Ralph Peters said for example at the military academy if we had only bombed Vietnam we could have saved it from Communism if we had used nuclear weapons. What they are saying now is better red than red. You see this coming in Sri Lanka and you see none of this in the media. It is a major geostrategic state that is here, the media are not talking about it. Instead they make a scene like it is just an argument between the Tamil and the Sinhalese and the Tamil.
You spoke about alternative media. How could they work better ?
They can work better with more money. The internet is, as I said, until the internet is shut down or censured the way it is in China, there is a great deal up there because it is very cheap have an alternative news site on the internet.
There are also a lot of manipulations going on in internet because we do not know what are the sources ...
That is not true, internet comprises a vast variety of things. There are sites that are excellent and we do know the sources. If you got any common sense you go to the sites who refer to you, you do not go the sites if you do not know what the sources are, where the news is coming from.
What are your main reproaches considering coverage of mainstream media during conflicts ?
My reproach is that the media do not question what is behind the conflict. For example in Sri Lanka, the reporting is all about the government and the Tamil Tigers. There is gigantic amount of manipulation there particularly since the truce was broken last January. At that time according to the opinion polls carried on in Sri Lanka. The polls were saying roughly 80-85% on both sides favored a peaceful resolution and they believed it was possible. And then the government broke the truce and started this warfare with the view that they would destroy the Tamil population if necessary to retake this land. It goes back to what Ralph Peters said for example at the military academy if we had only bombed Vietnam we could have saved it from Communism if we had used nuclear weapons. What they are saying now is better red than red. You see this coming in Sri Lanka and you see none of this in the media. It is a major geostrategic state that is here, the media are not talking about it. Instead they make a scene like it is just an argument between the Tamil and the Sinhalese and the Tamil.
You spoke about alternative media. How could they work better ?
They can work better with more money. The internet is, as I said, until the internet is shut down or censured the way it is in China, there is a great deal up there because it is very cheap have an alternative news site on the internet.
There are also a lot of manipulations going on in internet because we do not know what are the sources ...
That is not true, internet comprises a vast variety of things. There are sites that are excellent and we do know the sources. If you got any common sense you go to the sites who refer to you, you do not go the sites if you do not know what the sources are, where the news is coming from.
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