Media innuendos unjustified

It is a time of shock and grief for the Chinese people. Dozens of innocent people were killed and more than 100 others were injured in a terrorist attack on the railway station in Kunming.

Most media organizations worldwide covered the incident in a professional manner in line with the principle of humanity, however, a handful of Western news organizations have rubbed salt into the wounds, says a Xinhua commentary.

The indiscriminate killing was an organized, premeditated violent terrorist attack. Evidence collected at the scene shows that it was carried out by East Turkistan separatists.

However, certain Western news organizations viewed the pools of innocent blood through tinted glasses and implied that the appalling violence was due to China's ethnic policy and that Beijing was exaggerating the threat "as a pretext to crack down on" Uygurs.

The presence of such suspicion and innuendo is in sharp contrast with their absence in those news organizations' coverage of the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon, not to mention the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001.

Such prejudiced reporting reeks of a double standard, not least because the Kunming incident completely accords with the accepted definitions of terrorism, including those provided by the UN General Assembly and the European Union.

The willful ignoring of the venomous nature of the Kunming carnage is not only detrimental to the credibility of those media organizations themselves, but also offensive to the victims and their families and the Chinese people as a whole.

The implicit accusations against China's ethnic policies are also baseless and biased. Beijing has fully demonstrated its commitment to protecting the freedom of religion, preserving cultural diversity and promoting development and prosperity in minority areas.

The terrorists and extremists have no justifiable grounds whatsoever for their deliberate killing of innocent civilians. All conscientious people of the world should denounce and unite against such a crime against humanity.

Terrorism knows no boundaries and deserves no compassion. Applying double standards to terrorism jeopardizes the global efforts to overcome this common challenge.

As the international community, including most members of the global media, strive to boost counterterrorism cooperation, those biased media organizations should cast off their prejudiced agendas and contribute in a productive way.