The first Olympic competition: Confusion vs. Order

Who’s sowing confusion in China and Tibet?

A melee in Tibet’s capital appeared to have been sparked by attempts by police to carry out security checks, indicating the tension and volatility remaining in Lhasa weeks after an anti-government riot.

A mobile phone text message to Lhasa residents from the local police said security checks carried out on Saturday had “frightened citizens” and caused panic in the city centre.

“Please obey the law and please follow the rules, don’t create rumors, don’t believe rumors, don’t spread rumors,” read the text message, which was reprinted by the Free Tibet Campaign and International Campaign for Tibet.

“Severely battle any creation or any spreading of rumors that would upset or frighten people or cause social disorder or illegal criminal behavior that could damage social stability,” the message read.

It was not clear if the security check was in response to a protest, or if the check itself caused the panic.

Read the message again and guess.

Which reminds me of an article in the New York Times a couple of days ago, that in the crush of publicity over the civil unrest in Tibet over China’s oppression in the buildup to The Games….stood out a little bit.

Weeping and yelling, “Tibet is not free,” a group of red-robed monks on Thursday disrupted a carefully scripted tour for foreign journalists in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, as Chinese officials tried to portray the recent Tibetan riots as the work of thugs and separatists.

The 15-minute protest by about 30 monks, who spoke first in Tibetan and then switched to Mandarin, was in the Jokhang Monastery, one of Tibet’s holiest shrines. The protest, videotaped by reporters, ended after government handlers shouted for the journalists to leave and tried to pull them away, an Associated Press correspondent on the tour said in an interview.

Now why is the New York Times reporting from what an Associated Press correspondent said?

Foreign coverage and reaction of the violence in Tibet have focused on China’s heavy crackdown and arrests in the aftermath of the riots and have led to talk among some foreign officials of boycotting the opening ceremony of this summer’s Olympic Games. The Chinese wanted the reporters to see damage caused by the rioters and to interview Han Chinese victims of the violence, the worst here in 20 years.

Okay, but…

Several American news organizations were invited to send representatives on the three-day press tour, but The New York Times was not.

So, is the whole world officially miffed at the Times?

Of those who are – even the Huffington Post(!) - why is the word “venerable” still put before the name of the paper?