Editorial Comment: SA massacre: Western media strangely mum

to point bloodied fingers at perceived norm-breakers in other parts of the world appear to have been stunned into silence as well as exposing the synergies between their foreign policies and the editorial policies of their media.
Despite the gruesome death toll of 44, when the eight mine workers and two police officers who died earlier in the week are factored in, Western media coverage has been largely indifferent at worst and muted at best.
Conspicuous by its absence is the strident human rights discourse that underpins reports in other parts of the world, particularly in Zimbabwe.
We are left wondering if the media’s muted criticism has to do with the fact that the attack on the poor miners was in defence of foreign capital whose protection, in the context of globalisation, has become synonymous with the preservation of “law and order” by developing world countries.
Could the silence also have something to do with the role some Western powers have vested on South Africa, that of pointman who watches over ‘‘norm-violating’’ regimes in the region?
A role that then exempts South Africa from the same scrutiny and criticism levelled at perceived “rogue regimes”.
To put matters into perspective, would the response have been the same had those 34 miners been shot and killed at any of the four mines operating in Chiadzwa?
Particularly as we have seen, the same media go hysterical over fabricated reports of killings in Chiadzwa from individuals and groups who have never set foot on the diamond fields.
This is not meant to say we expected global media to tar and feather South Africa in the same way they trash our country.
We will never wish such retrogressive propaganda on anybody.
We are just amused by the duplicity of it all and hope it helps others understand how global media operate.
We urge human rights activists in our midst and our compatriots the world over to respond to the killings of our fellow brothers in South Africa with as much condemnation and proactive engagement as we have seen them devote to those the Westerners give a bad name.
For instance, over the past week, the media were awash with news of the arrest and conviction of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot.
The three ladies, who constitute the Pussy Riot band, desecrated a Russian Orthodox Church by performing an anti-Putin protest song therein drawing the ire of not only the church but also the law.
The trio’s media stunt and subsequent imprisonment spawned much more anguished reactions in the global media than the gunning down of 34 miners in South Africa whose only crime was demanding a fair share in return for their labour.
As the media, we all need to have a sense of perspective and reflect on the value judgments that underpin our reactions to issues, and what they mean in our scheme of things.
Such a responsible approach will, no doubt, help us understand not only our role as watchdogs but also our obligations to the society that entrusts us with the pen.
Viewed in that context, those miners died demanding what is rightfully theirs — a decent salary to sustain their livelihoods.
In fact, the miners were demanding just a small fraction of the proceeds from the operation, the majority of which is shipped out of Africa to Western capitals.