CAMBODIA MIA FARROW PROTEST COVERAGE COVERED
January 21st 2008 11:25
THE ONLY BEATING UP AT MIA FARROW’S CAMBODIAN PROTEST WAS DONE BY REUTERS SAYS BLOGGER
Phnom Penh-based blog, Monivong Boulevard, comments on how the media portrayed the Mia Farrow Cambodian Darfur protest, and how the media behaved while gathering the story.
Monivong Boulevard said the Reuters report was a “bit dramatic.”
Reuters reported, “Some 100 baton-wielding police blocked Farrow, who fronts the Dream for Darfur pressure group, and her fellow activists from entering the compound at Tuol Sleng, the Phnom Penh high school that became Pol Pot's main torture centre.”
But Monivong Boulevard reports, “The only baton wielding that I saw was by some half dozen blue uniformed traffic police guys who were directing traffic, and getting the journos and photogs to move their parked motos from the barricades.
“I was no more than a meter away from Farrow and company, and no time did I see any batons used at the group by the military police and the municipal cops. There was some pushing and shoving and some angry words exchanged. But that was it. Maybe there were batons wielded, but from my vantage point I couldn't see any.”
Monivong Boulevard then pointed out that Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) saw it slightly differently to Reuters, reporting, “In the end, however, it was an anticlimax, with Farrow and friend Seng Theary, director of her Cambodian partner agency Centre for Social Development, forced to stand forlornly on the wrong side of the barrier holding wilting white water lilies in scorching heat for an hour in a 70-strong crowd before giving up.
“Farrow said little, letting the outspoken young US-Khmer rights activist Seng do all the talking as they pleaded fruitlessly for entry. But the pair suffered more jostling from journalists, who appeared to outnumber Dreamers, than they did from police.
“Some Farrow supporters tried to threaten police with US embassy intervention, but were rebuffed. Phnom Penh security chief Police General Hy Pru turned up to supervise, and the rally ended quietly. Police said there were no arrests.”
Monivong Boulevard said the DPA observations about journalists were correct: “It was crazy out there, like a rugby maul, with lots of pushing and shoving and elbows flying. For a moment, I thought Mia and Theary Seng were going to get hurt, and not by the cops.
“People like to criticise the Khmer press for their unruly behaviour at these things, but some of the foreign journos and photogs who were there were even worse. Their behaviour this morning made their Khmer journalistic brethren look like complete gentlemen. Wankers.”
Phnom Penh-based blog, Monivong Boulevard, comments on how the media portrayed the Mia Farrow Cambodian Darfur protest, and how the media behaved while gathering the story.
Monivong Boulevard said the Reuters report was a “bit dramatic.”
Reuters reported, “Some 100 baton-wielding police blocked Farrow, who fronts the Dream for Darfur pressure group, and her fellow activists from entering the compound at Tuol Sleng, the Phnom Penh high school that became Pol Pot's main torture centre.”
“I was no more than a meter away from Farrow and company, and no time did I see any batons used at the group by the military police and the municipal cops. There was some pushing and shoving and some angry words exchanged. But that was it. Maybe there were batons wielded, but from my vantage point I couldn't see any.”
Monivong Boulevard then pointed out that Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) saw it slightly differently to Reuters, reporting, “In the end, however, it was an anticlimax, with Farrow and friend Seng Theary, director of her Cambodian partner agency Centre for Social Development, forced to stand forlornly on the wrong side of the barrier holding wilting white water lilies in scorching heat for an hour in a 70-strong crowd before giving up.
“Farrow said little, letting the outspoken young US-Khmer rights activist Seng do all the talking as they pleaded fruitlessly for entry. But the pair suffered more jostling from journalists, who appeared to outnumber Dreamers, than they did from police.
Monivong Boulevard said the DPA observations about journalists were correct: “It was crazy out there, like a rugby maul, with lots of pushing and shoving and elbows flying. For a moment, I thought Mia and Theary Seng were going to get hurt, and not by the cops.
“People like to criticise the Khmer press for their unruly behaviour at these things, but some of the foreign journos and photogs who were there were even worse. Their behaviour this morning made their Khmer journalistic brethren look like complete gentlemen. Wankers.”
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