Blind media in the Caucasus

Göran Greider, chief editor of the daily Dala-Demokraten, disparages media coverage of the Caucasus conflict: "The coverage ... is one-sided and it looks like an old-fashioned Russian bogeyman is being dragged out to scare people. Georgia is practically a satellite of the US. ... I listened to an interview with [Swedish Foreign Minister] Carl Bildt on the radio today in which he was basically given the role of an independent expert. When at the end of the interview he was asked whether the Georgian leadership bears responsibility for the dramatic escalation of the conflict, his reply - after several attempts at evasion - basically boiled down to a no. And this pattern is repeated everywhere. A self-appointed Russia expert claimed that Russia has distanced itself from European values. Excuse me? Why were the UK and the majority of European countries not accused of distancing themselves from these values when they participated in the illegal war in Iraq? ... It is completely unreasonable that Carl Bildt's analysis appears to be setting the standard for the media's view on the situation."

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