A book has been published in China to refute the distortions made by some Western media on the March 14 Lhasa riot in Tibet.

The Chinese-language book, Lies and Truth, features a large amount of facts to rebut such reports, the publisher, SDX Joint Publishing Company, said in Beijing on Friday.

It also expounds on the history, religion and culture of Tibet and the origin of the "Tibet independence" issue.

In its appendix, the book has a list explaining various facts about the mountainous autonomous region for readers' reference.

Violence erupted in Lhasa on March 14 when rioters committed assaults, vandalism, looting and arson in the plateau city. A total of 19 people were killed.

The U.S.-based Cable News Network (CNN) posted a picture on its website showing people running in front of a military truck. The original picture uploaded by Chinese netizens, however, also showed rioters throwing stones at the truck. The latter had been cropped out of the photo.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) released a picture on its website showing Chinese armed police officers helping medical staff move a wounded person into an ambulance.

The website's caption said "there is a heavy military presence in Lhasa," neglecting the obvious "First Aid" and Red Cross signs on the ambulance as references.

However, after outcries of the Chinese public, some Western media admitted they had presented wrong or distorted information in their coverage of the incident.

German broadcaster N-TV, for example, admitted a picture and a video sequence it used on March 20 in a report about the Tibet riot was actually from Nepal, a neighboring country of China.

(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2008)