I logged on to CCTV and the China Daily websites ready to scoff at how they glossed over the protests at the Olympic Torch Relay in Paris yesterday. But I was pleasantly surprised to find they had covered the demonstrations, the arrests and the fact that the torch had to be bundled onto a bus to escape protesters. They condemned the protest, of course, but they covered it.
On the China Daily site, they also published over a dozen readers' comments - which were a fair mix of opinion on the issue.
They may not have portrayed the full extent of the chaos as reported on French TV (which said the relay had effectively been 'canceled') but it seemed a reasonable account from a Chinese perspective.
The media here in Beijing played up the counter-protests by Chinese nationals who supported the torch-bearers. These groups were portrayed as having been very much a small, fringe gathering by western outlets.
I'm not making the mistake of thinking that the truth lies exactly half-way between what the Chinese and French media say, but it's worth noting that the issue was covered, albeit with a natural Chinese tilt.
Am I setting the bar too low?
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