Friday, August 18, 2006

Yet another thing we REALLY don't need

Scoop: Hate Messages In DR Congo Media Target Whites: "The top United Nations envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has expressed concern about hate messages in the local media, which are inciting Congolese to target and take revenge on “white people and foreigners,” a spokesman for the world body said today.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the DRC, William Lacy Swing, made his feelings known this morning, following yesterday’s decision by the Congolese High Authority on Media to suspend for 24 hours the local RTAE and CCTV television stations because of the broadcasts.

CCTV television station is owned by presidential candidate and current Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York, adding that the official Congolese Broadcasting Corporation television station has also been suspended for 24 hours on similar grounds."
Read on, it talsk about the status of the vote counting. I am a firm opponent of blanket-xenophobia, whatever direction that takes, and this is just disappointing to see that a country that was long known for its welcoming nature, is now being pushed into this attitude, by unscrupulous politicians, and media moguls (and some are both). Just so sad...

1 comment:

BRE said...

It's the kind of angle on the story that the Kiwi Press would take, isn't it? White folks burned in boiling palm oil down in the Congo.

Funny thing is, the official U.N. Mission to the DR Congo site, MONUC.org, reports the story from a very different angle without any reference to "hate messages against whites" in the local and national media. See the MONUC article at:
http://www.monuc.org/news.aspx?newsID=12141

Man, I'm glad these TV and radio stations weren't broadcasting "hate messages against blacks" 'cause then we would have reason to really be upset.

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