I agree Steven, but the Israeli protests give context to the discussion, with the possible exception of the London rallies they were the biggest "social justice" events of the year yet they were given minimal coverage.
Some things which a normal person might regard as kind of a big story aren't making headlines even though we have 24 hour multimedia news coverage in practically every home in the country.
Why? We can only speculate but I'd suggest it's because they were the real deal and maybe Israeli activists are not as tame and compliant as those in the West and those placards lettered in Hebrew might have had borne messages that were less than "complimentary".
Was it Frank Lowy who said, "I never criticise Israel unless I'm actually in Israel, then I speak my mind"?
We have the Dalai Lama appearing on Masterchef yet no word on these immolations, you're completely correct, it smells bad but
maybe we're reading too much into this, there is a code of conduct pertaining to reports on suicide, that might be the only factor at play here.

It is a disgrace we do not hear about such stories, although Dateline (SBS)is probably the most likely to expose such a story.

More likely to read about such stories in the Guardian, or simply by surfing the net.

Dear stevenlmeyer,

Probably the government does not want stories that reflect badly on China printed. A few years ago Australia was supporting the blockade on Bougainville by maintaining the PNG patrol boats built by ASI many of whose employees lived in Kim Beazley's electoral district. Kim Beazley as Minister for Defense had pushed the Pacific Patrol Boat (PPB) project. The Australian printed a big story on the blockade. The story mentioned neither the condemnation of the blockade as a violation of international law nor the estimation of over 10,000 lives that had been lost due to the blockade preventing medical supplies from getting through. I called up Ian Cameron, the reporter whose name was on the story, to ask about the omission. He said he mentioned the lives lost, but the editor decided not to publish that part of his story. I don't know why it wasn't published, but I suspect the Australian government lets the mainstream press know what they don’t want printed. We have no official censorship, but I think the unofficial censorship is quite effective.

Steven we are mates with China, full stop.

Addendum:
“NEITHER Prime Minister Julia Gillard nor Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd will meet the Dalai Lama during his visit to Federal Parliament today ...”

i agree with david
unofficial censore ship is rife

that and commercial 'inconfidence'..info
and then the spin merchants and advertisers intrsts

and lest we forget..rupert would hope to get into china
at some stage...if not no doudt his half chinese kids will