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![]() Tunisia – the people’s revolution
Yvonne Ridley comments on the British media’s lopsided coverage of the uprising in Tunisia – devoting airtime to the inconvenience caused to UK tourists and focusing on the role of social media rather than the “revolutionaries who physically took to the streets and faced down live ammunition, baton charges and tear gas”.
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Wednesday, January 19,2011 15:39 | |||||||||
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Yvonne Ridley comments on the British media’s lopsided coverage of the uprising in Tunisia – devoting airtime to the inconvenience caused to UK tourists and focusing on the role of social media rather than the “revolutionaries who physically took to the streets and faced down live ammunition, baton charges and tear gas”.
BBC Five Live reported the trembling words of a Yorkshireman who said: "We can’t believe it. They shut all the bars. Then when we got t'airport duty free were closed!" Yes, the BBC went right to the heart of the matter showing once again it had its finger on the pulse of popular opinion. That was on 14 January and then more dramatic stories emerged the next two days as returning tourists talked about roaming street gangs looting and setting fire to property, and what a grand job the police were doing. The reactions of the traumatized tourists prompted one leading Tunisian blogger to Tweet this rather blunt, if not personal piece of advice: "A revolution is ongoing, take your drunk ass somewhere else. Return after elections." Now that the “human interest” angle of the terrorized tourists has been virtually exhausted, the Western media are trying to explain the ongoing demonstrations and the cause of the revolution…
We Westerners, hooked up to our Blackberries and iPhones, were merely given front row electronic seats from where we could cheer on the real revolutionaries who physically took to the streets and faced down live ammunition, baton charges and tear gas. Now we are told there will be elections in Tunisia in the next 60 days or so, and when the people make their choice of government I hope the Western media, Western governments and the United Nations set aside their usual prejudices and accept the outcome – unlike what happened in Gaza. |
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tags: Ben Ali / Tunisian / Elections / WikiLeaks / Gaza / Hamas / Western Media / CIA / Berlin Wall / BBC / Ministry of Interior / Police State / Revolution / Facebook / Unemployment / Democracy and Freedom / Corruption / YouTube / Elections in Tunisia / Opposition Parties / Islamists
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