Friday, November 16, 2012

Different Viewpoint

When I was in my early twenties I used to read an English version of the Russian newspaper Pravda which had just started to be printed. This was in the 1980’s and the cold war was still well and truly being raged. I didn’t read it because I wanted to be a Communist or had any sympathies for the communist way of life. I read it because I was fascinated by the way they covered stories from a completely different viewpoint to British newspapers.

I remember one big story here at the time was a huge Gypsy and traveller camp in the New Forest. Hundreds and Hundreds of vans, lorries and buses in one part of the forest. It made national headlines, especially when the Police came to break up the camp. From what I can remember the English press seen to rejoice in the police action and how they claimed back part of the New Forest for everyone.

Pravda also reported the police action, but they talked about how the British Police sent these people back home, to homes they simply didn’t have and how this showed the complete and utter failing of Western Democracy and the Western way of life. Certainly a very different viewpoint.

I was reminded of this after seeing reports of the very sad case of Savita Halappanavar. This was a pregnant lady in Ireland who had complications in her pregnancy but was refused an abortion as they are banned in Ireland. Sadly she later died. Her husband believes that if she had the abortion she would be alive today. BBC News ran the story with the headline

Woman dies after abortion request 'refused' at Galway hospital

The Irish times had

Woman 'denied a termination' dies in hospital

but the Indian Times had the heading

IRELAND MURDERS PREGNANT INDIAN DENTIST (http://www.indiatimes.com/europe/ireland-murders-pregnant-indian-dentist-47214.html)

Wow what a powerful headline and strong words there. Now I’m not comparing the Indian Times to Pravda except in the fact there have both taken a major story and turned it on its head. Both had a different view point to those expressed here in the UK. I’m not saying they are right or wrong, All, I am saying is that I love the way each takes a completely different angle on a story to that in the UK papers, Maybe looking at something from a different perspective is something we should learn from.

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