"We hope CNN can take this seriously because What CNN said and did not only hurt the Chinese people's feelings but also hurt CNN's image itself," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu told reporters in Beijing on Thursday.
Amid protests against the western media over its alleged "biased and distorted" coverage of Tibet unrest, particularly targeting CNN, a group of lawyers had on Wednesday filed a suit against the channel and its commentator Jack Cafferty seeking a public apology, saying the remarks had harmed the reputation and dignity of Chinese people.
"This is a spontaneous activity by Chinese civilians", Jiang said reacting to the lawyers' move.
Cafferty's remarks had invited an angry response from China last week with its Foreign Ministry summoning CNN's Beijing bureau chief, demanding withdrawal of the "vile" remarks and a "sincere apology".
On the sustained campaign being carried out by Chinese internet users against the Western media on the Tibet issue, she said, "we also notice that some people are expressing their views online. What they are opposing is the insult against the Chinese people and distorted reports. We believe such a phenomenon should be paid attention to by CNN".
"I hope CNN can take this seriously and we look forward to CNN's reply," Jiang said.
Jiang said it should be noticed that it was not the Chinese people who were "doing something".
Instead, she said, "some people are trying to insult Chinese people, provoking Chinese people. So the Chinese people are expressing their opposition against such activities that attempt to ruin China's reputation. I hope the international community will listen to Chinese people's voice".
After the furore created by Cafferty's remarks, CNN came out with a clarification saying "Jack was offering his strongly held opinion of the Chinese government, not the Chinese people", but Beijing rejected this, insisting on a "sincere apology".
Source: DDNEWS
