Someone in the writing biz once told me that thus quoting a single word in a headline, “persecution” in the headline quoted above, is not necessarily invidious. Such quoting is not per se distancing or suggestive of editorial skepticism, just indicating that one or more principals of the story has uttered the word. Just a straight quotation is all this is.
Sometimes the defense may be valid, but not here.
Any paraphrase of someone’s words normally includes one or more of the words uttered in the original statement. Joe might say “I’m off to the store now.” Later, paraphrasing Joe, I might say “Joe said he’s going to the store.” Why would I verbally or in writing put the words “the store” in quotation marks that can only be understood as skeptically distancing myself from this contention unless I thought that Joe were really going to a brothel or something, not to a store? If a headline writer does not intend to distance himself from the usage of a word and he is not neutrally referring to a word as a word (“Shakespeare’s ‘incarnadine’ and other Macbethian verbs”), surrounding an isolated word in quotation marks is probably not needed for the sake of clarity and may at best be confusing. One can’t issue a flat proscription that ignores relevant contextual differences. But let’s just say that, by and large, single-word quoting is “guilty” until “proven” “innocent.”
Another giveaway in the headline is the use of the word “cries,” which suggests an immature or disproportionate, somehow inappropriate reaction to the alleged (imagined?) cause. Would there be any difference in tone and implication if the headline had, instead, said “Muslim organization protests persecution of Uyghurs”?
In the body of this February 11, 2024 story, we see one ambiguous instance of smidgen-quoting, the quotation marks around the two-word phrase “cartographic aggression,” which may be motivated by a simple desire to indicate that this is the exact phrase used by the protestors but may also be doing double duty. Then we see a clear note of skepticism in the “persecution”-style quotation marks around the single word “aggression.”
The protestors also decried China’s “cartographic aggression”, pointing to the inclusion of the entire Arunachal Pradesh as Chinese territory in the 2023 Standard Map released by [China’s] Ministry of Natural Resources….
There have been accounts of the Chinese government apprehending numerous Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang province. However, official statements from the Chinese government remain scarce on the matter.
The demonstrators also spoke out against China’s “aggression” in Arunachal Pradesh….
China’s aggressions along and beyond Indian and other borders are not merely asserted or cartographic.
The story ends on this non-skeptical note, however:
Although there have been several protests in front of the Chinese consulate, including by the BJP and affiliated groups and the pro-Tibetan groups, this is the first time the Muslims in Calcutta have protested against the persecution of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province.
Suddenly, no quotation marks enclose the word “persecution.” Perhaps Dr. Jekyll wrote the conclusion, but Mr. Hyde wrote the headline and first two thirds of the story.
Let’s say that the reporter in his first-two-thirds incarnation is honestly unsure whether Uyghurs in the Xinjian region of China are being persecuted. To remedy this doubt, he need not imbibe any transmogrifying potion. He need only do research.
As StopTheChinazis.org has argued, that China has perpetrated mass detentions of Uyghurs innocent of any crime and subjected them and others to vicious abuse is “not just an accusation. A reporter can review the abundant testimony of actual victims: Uyghurs, Tibetans, members of Falun Gong, and others. As well as leaked internal documents showing how Chinese authorities have gone about about imprisoning and torturing Uyghurs and explaining things to distraught family members not yet abducted and incarcerated themselves.”
Also see:
StopTheChinazis.org: “Business is Booming in Northwest China—So Is Uyghur Slave Labor” by Ruth Ingram
”Both business and forced labor are booming in Northwest China despite the best efforts of governments and international organizations set on curbing human rights abuses in the Uyghur region.”
New York Times: “ ‘Absolutely No Mercy’: Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims”
”Children saw their parents taken away, students wondered who would pay their tuition and crops could not be planted or harvested for lack of manpower, the reports noted. Yet officials were directed to tell people who complained to be grateful for the Communist Party’s help and stay quiet.”
NBC News: “China’s new map outrages its neighbors”
”India led regional protests to the map, which lays claim to disputed territory in the Himalayas, as well as almost all of the strategically important South China Sea.”
