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With hope

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Relatives of missing Japanese students walk to a bus after arriving at Christchurch airport in New Zealand on Friday. Many Japanese students of an international English language school are still unaccounted for following Tuesday's magnitude 6.3 temblor that has left more than 100 people dead, collapsed buildings and caused extensive other damage in the South Island city.

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It's very similar to the US media. I recall a scene on CNN where parents' children had been killed and they reporters would ask questions like, "Could you tell us what it feels like to lose a child?" and so on. Unbelievable but that is the way the US media is. I guess Japan isn't far behind.

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so heartbreaking! i feel so sorry for them. :(

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We've all been on this planet long enough to know that this is what the media do, full stop. No need to kick Japan.

I haven't seen the Kiwi - or any other media mind you - stoop to the filthy level of the particular Japanese media organisation who interviewed that Japanese kid two days after having his leg amputated and asking him questions that were outrageously inappropriate. I also have not yet read of other media being arrested for illegally breaking through the disaster zone cordon. Our Kiwi brothers and sisters don't need this. Instead, the J-Media should be using their papers and internet sites to appeal for donations for the Kiwi Red Cross disaster relief.

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bobbafett, that might be Tana Umaga with a handbag, but you know I'm only half joking....... :-)

Tana is a gentleman. If he used his fists he could punch through debris and rescue quake victims.

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bobbafett, that might be Tana Umaga with a handbag, but you know I'm only half joking....... :-)

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we've all been here long enough to know this is what the J-Media do

We've all been on this planet long enough to know that this is what the media do, full stop. No need to kick Japan.

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He also told the boy that none of his friends had been pulled out of the rubble and were probably dead

a total disgrace worthy of the worst NZ pub beating a total a-hole can get.

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best wishes to the families of the victims.

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Honestly, although JT is a Japanese-oriented website, I would have expected this picture to be taken by a local media worker and carried over via Reuters or something similar. I am not in Japan at the moment to see the media circus. That interview sounds pretty harrowing.

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Saborichan, if you can read Japanese, jump over to the 2chan website and have a look at the complaints the Japanese media is getting at the moment because of the invasiveness they've shown in trying to get interviews with some of these suffering parents. These parents have been hounded from there houses in Japan, all the way to New Zealand. Other plane passengers even reported that journalists were trying to inteview them on the plane. A reporter for Fuji TV, in a live interview with the young Japanese boy who was rescued from the rubble after having his leg amputated, asked the boy how he felt about not being able to play soccer again. He also told the boy that none of his friends had been pulled out of the rubble and were probably dead. That was something that medical staff had been trying to keep from him so that he wouldn't go into shock. These parents are not in a state to asking for protecting from media. Notice the masks and hats? It is us, the customers of the media, who have the power to demand more respect for victims and relatives.

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I feel so sorry for these people

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I tend to agree with you Lunchbox- but we've all been here long enough to know this is what the J-Media do - and always will. Inappropriate, invasive filming/photography is their forte. I was watching yesterday as a Japanese TV crew attempted to enter the (very dangerous) locked-down disaster site in a van. They asked the Kiwi Army guys guarding the site, in broken English - "We are Japanese television...can we come in and film?" The Kiwi soldier, with a smile: "No, but what you can do is turn around and go back..."

My heart goes out to these parents. I guess it is part of the process to at least see where their kids met their untimely end.

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Lunchbox, taj, go down to the konbini an get yourself a can of harden the ! up. The photographer is doing his/her job. I'm sure you'd be critical if there weren't any pictures because you'd say the Japanese victims are being ignored. You don't know a thing about the circumstances under which the picture was taken. What if it's by a struggling Japanese student who likes photography and was in the right place at the right time? Your contextless wailing isn't a defence they asked for or even require.

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That must be so hard :(

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I hope some of the Chch residents that are wheelbarrowing silt and mud from the streets dump some of it on the cameraman and reporters that are hounding these parents, give them a break.

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I don't imagine they appreciate the photographers.

JT, I didn't need to see this. My interest in seeing their pain is not worth the tiniest drop of additional pain added to them by the flashbulbs.

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I don't envy the trip these parents have had to make. I would not like to be in their position. I hope they find something to help them deal with the nightmare they are facing.

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