Kershaw-stop framing Haitians as savages

Is the media's framing of the Haitian tragedy putting the citizens of the country is a bad light.

Yes says Andy Kershaw writing in the Independent this morning.

By concentrating on security issues,

this assumption that there is a security threat has gone completely unchallenged by an army of foreign press, equally unfamiliar with Haiti and the character of the Haitians. Indeed, TV reporters particularly, having exhausted the televisual possibilities of rubble, have been talking up "security", "unrest" and "violence" when all available evidence would indicate anything but.

The BBC's Matt Frei is to blame who says Kershaw

has been working himself up all week into what is now a state of near hysteria about "security" and the almost non-existent "violence".

adding that

Over the weekend we saw him anticipating an outbreak of unrest, standing before a crowd of thousands of hungry, humiliated Haitians as they waited, patiently and quietly, to be given rations by UN soldiers.