I AM FROM SOUTH AMERICA and naturally interested in what goes on there. It is for this reason that I am writing to comment on the lack of Canadian mainstream media coverage of the military coup that ousted democratically-elected president Evo Morales in Bolivia.
At the same time, I see the riots in Hong Kong everyday in our media. Why is the situation in Hong Kong more mediaworthy than the situation in Bolivia or Chile? Both Bolivia and Chile are undergoing social upheaval with government repression and dead protesters. I think that is newsworthy.
I don’t understand the biased coverage. If media is a means of communicating news, then shouldn’t our media be informing the Canadian public of the riots in Bolivia and Chile as they do of the riots in Hong Kong? I think that is a fair question.
As to the causes of why, I can only speculate. It could be because the Bolivian situation deals with a delicate issue to Canadian economic and social interests. Bolivia has mineral resources and Canadian companies have a presence there. Evo Morales nationalized the resource industry and made some foreign companies unhappy. Also, Evo is the first Indigenous president in South America, and the world for that matter. Canada has an ongoing delicate problem with its Indigenous population and may not want the issue in Bolivia, which has an Indigenous population of 62 per cent, to be too visible here given the current political situation.
Our media has corporate sponsors, and maybe they don’t want to go there for fear of losing their advertising dollars. Another reason could be because Evo’s government is an example of successful socialist policy. Bolivia had the greatest economic growth in the last decade out of all of Latin America. Also highest poverty reduction numbers. Even the IMF (International Monetary Fund) admits this.
I don’t know the exact reasons behind the lack of coverage of Bolivian and Chilean riots. But I do know our media is not covering them in a balanced way. The Canadian public has a right to be informed. The Canadian media has a responsibility to provide unbiased coverage of all newsworthy events around the world, regardless of politics.
— Eduardo Queiruga