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A Chinese student holds a placard to protest BBC's biased reports on the March 14 Lhasa riots in a silence demonstration in London April 19, 2008. [Lei Xiaoxun/chinadaily.com.cn]
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LONDON -- Thousands of Chinese students and expatriates in Britain staged a silence demonstration at a square opposite to the British Parliament building on Saturday, in protest against distorted reports by some Western media including BBC on the March 14 Lhasa riots.
More than 3,000 people joined the demonstration, the first ever staged by the Chinese community in Britain.
"Today we are here to oppose media distortion and media fabrication in the recent events. We are here in a quest for objectivity, fairness and justice," a demonstration coordinator read out a statement.
"As we heard, we saw, we say BBC on some of the recent events has misled the British public and the rest of the world by providing intensive untruthful reports and biased coverage."
"We are afraid that media distortion and media fabrication are going to build up the barrier and bring hatred between the Western world and the Chinese people. This attempt reminds us of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain."
"We appeal to British media agencies to end media distortion and media fabrication."
"At the time of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, we warmly welcome people from all over the world to come to our country to see, to hear, to touch the real China and to talk to the real Chinese people."
The demonstrators carried anti-distortion banners like "BBC unfair," "Stop media distortion, respect history, truth and China, " and "Softkiller, don't spread hatred."
The demonstrators, through several display boards, told the truth about the March 14 riots in Lhasa, capital of China's Tibet Autonomous Region, and by comparing some original photos with the ones grafted by certain Western media organizations, revealed how some media agencies distorted the truth.
The rally was mobilized via the Internet and received enthusiastic responses from all parts of Britain.
And in Paris, thousands of Chinese students and expatriates staged a demonstration to support the Beijing Olympic Games and denounce the biased and distorted reports on the March 14 Lhasa riots by some French media.
Organizers say between 6,000 and 7,000 turned out for Saturday's protest, at Paris' Place de la Republique. Police officials put the number of demonstrators at around 3,500.
Many of the demonstrators were wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the phrase "Let's make the Olympics a bridge, not a wall," in French.
Similar protests were also staged in other European cities on Saturday.
