Flop of the week: Awarding of the German Media Prize to the Dalai Lama meets with criticism

The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists, received the German Media Prize awarded by the market research company Media Control in Baden-Baden this week. Dalai Lama biographer Colin Goldner criticizes this decision. Goldner accuses the media of court reporting: the widespread image of the Dalai Lama as a "man of peace" and "ocean of wisdom" is based less on his own achievements than on his presentation in the media. Where it would have been necessary to ask critical questions, all too often songs of praise were sung. By awarding the German Media Prize to the Dalai Lama at the suggestion of the editors-in-chief of the "most influential media with the widest reach in Germany", their own "one-sided and manipulative presentation of the situation in Tibet, especially during the riots in March 2008" was retrospectively given a clean bill of health.