Don’t slam Indian media, says Australian senator
By IANSThursday, February 4, 2010
MELBOURNE - An Australian senator Thursday slammed Victorian Premier John Brumby for criticising the Indian media over race attacks in the country, saying “No, it’s not wise, frankly”.
Senator Steve Fielding said in Canberra: “We do have a problem in Victoria of Indians being attacked and it needs to be addressed. Having a crack at the Indian media, I don’t think, is helpful at all.
“No it’s not wise, frankly,” the Australian news agency AAP quoted Fielding as saying.
The string of attacks on Indians has strained relations between Canberra and New Delhi. One Indian, Nitin Garg, was fatally stabbed Jan 2 in Melbourne while walking to the restaurant where he worked.
Brumby Wednesday criticised the Indian media and a section of officials and said there had to be “some balance to the reporting” after it emerged that an Indian man who claimed to have been set alight by assailants in Melbourne had in fact accidentally burnt himself.
He also referred to the death of Ranjodh Singh whose body was found on the side of a road in New South Wales Dec 29.
“I think the point needs to be made that the people who have been charged with that murder are both Indians.
“So I hope that there is some balance to the debate, some balance to the reporting in India and certainly to date that balance hasn’t been there.”
