Georgia Crisis

Russians appear to be getting only one side of the story of the conflict in Georgia. According to a Moscow Times article, Russian television is showing the misery left by the Georgian assault in South Ossetia, but few, if any, reports mention Russia's bombing of Georgia.

After William Dunbar, a correspondent for the English-language state channel Russia Today, mentioned the bombing in a report on Saturday, his scheduled reports later that day were cancelled by the station. He said: "I felt that I had no choice but to resign."

He added: "I had a series of live, video satellite links scheduled for later that day, and they were cancelled. The real news, the real facts of the matter, didn't conform to what they were trying to report, and therefore, they wouldn't let me report it."

A Russia Today spokeswoman pointed to a Georgian media report that claimed Dunbar had protested at Russia's "aggression" against Georgia. She said the channel assumed that was why he quit.

Russian officials claim that western media are also guilty of showing only one side of the story. They argue that the western journalists are taking Georgia's side and therefore misinforming their audiences. Deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin said western media had failed to show the plight of Ossetians and what was left of their capital after it was almost razed by Georgian troops.