By KUNA,
Tokyo : The Chinese government has lodged a complaint against CNN’s Beijing office, condemning the TV network as “without any professional reputation,” state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao, who is also the Director-General of the ministry’s Information Department, said that a statement issued by CNN on Tuesday failed to apologize for its host Jack Cafferty’s remarks, which attacked the Chinese people and seriously violated the professional ethics of journalism, according to Xinhua.
“CNN’s ulterior motive to target the Chinese government and continue to mislead public opinion as well as deceive the Chinese people will never succeed,” Liu said in a statement.
“Journalistic professionals should abide by their ethics, and they don’t have the privilege to slander or rail at anybody or any government”, Liu said.
Cafferty said in a TV show on April 9 that the Chinese products are “junk” and the Chinese people “basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years,” Xinhua reported. Cafferty’s remarks drew indignation from Chinese at home and abroad, and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu demanded an apology from CNN as well as Cafferty himself. CNN then issued a statement saying “it was not Mr. Cafferty’s nor CNN’s intent to cause offence to the Chinese people, and CNN would apologize to anyone who has interpreted the comments in this way.” However, the network stated that Cafferty was offering his “strongly held” opinion of the Chinese government, not China’s people, said Xinhua.
The move came amid increasing attacks in China against Western media over alleged bias in their reports of the anti-government protests in Tibet and neighboring provinces with large Tibetan populations. Foreign reporters have been barred from visiting Tibet and neighbouring provinces affected by the unrest that broke out last month, except press trips organized by the government.