The Truth About Beslan Tragedy. Research Paper II PART
- International media about Beslan events
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'Our women are being raped. Our children are being killed.
"'I told him, 'You should have taken the authorities hostage,
Not kids.' He said, 'Doctor, if you only knew how we got here,
you would be very surprised.'"1
On the 1st of September 2004 the new school term began in horror for the town of Beslan in North Ossetia when a group of at least ten2 armed Chechen separatists and supporters took more than 1,2003 schoolchildren and adults hostage. As a result of tragic event that followed, more than 330 civilians were killed, including 186 children. School N 1 became the subject of international news coverage.
A huge criticism appeared about Beslan tragedy media coverage from the first days. Russian government censorship was soon revealed and finally the coverage of the events had proven that media freedom had taken hold in Russia. Cases of detention and harassment of journalists occurred, seriously impeding their work. Even more importantly, the government did not provide in a timely manner truthful information on the handling of the crisis: How many people were taken hostage; What was the number of hostage takers; Who were they; What were their demands. As a result a huge gap arose, between the government and the media, between the media and the citizens, and between the government and the people. “This is a serious drawback for a democracy”- was written in special report about Beslan media coverage by Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. 4
The Russian government has denied the people the most important and elementary right of reliable, rapid and extensive information on what was happening. From the beginning of the crisis on the morning of September 1 to its tragic end two days later, leading politicians, representatives of the secret police and the major Russian media outlets in conducted a deliberate campaign of disinformation regarding the extent of the catastrophe and its dreadful consequences. The handling of the siege by Vladimir Putin's administration was criticized by a number of observers and grassroots organizations.
Did Russians lose faith in media after Beslan? Different opinion poles showed that public confidence in the media in Russia had fallen to rock-bottom levels following controversial coverage of the Beslan school siege.
The relatives of Beslan victims till today claim that the officials have done nothing to establish the real picture of the tragedy. What had Russian and foreign media done to establish the real picture and how was Putin’s government trying to hide the truth from media? These are the questions we will try to answer in this research paper.
A Dutch television journalist was killed when Russian warplanes bombed the central Georgian city of Gori. The television news station RTL cameraman Stan Storimans, 39, was killed and correspondent Jeroen Akkermans was wounded in the leg in the attack.
I am deeply sorry for this tragedy and my thoughts go out to Mr. Storimans' family, his wife and two children.
Storimans had planned to publish a book this year describing his 20 years of reporting from hotspots like Sri Lanka, Congo, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Iraq and the former Yugoslavia, among others.
By David Alexander, BREGANCON, France (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will ask Georgia's president on Friday to sign a French-negotiated ceasefire that contains some apparent concessions to Moscow but would lead to the withdrawal of Russian forces, officials said.
The source obtained from:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I've just met with my national security team to discuss the crisis in Georgia. I've spoken with President Saakashvili of Georgia, and President Sarkozy of France this morning. The United States strongly supports France's efforts, as President of the European Union, to broker an agreement that will end this conflict. The United States of America stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia. We insist that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected.