the “40,000 protesters” myth 

I understand that some members have a politically motivated desire to make the 2010 election look as sinister and anti-democratic  as possible, but you have to get the facts straight about these four sources on “40,000 protesters”.1. This one shouldn't be considered altogether. It is a UNHCR page quoting instead of a reliable news source a Washington-based “foundation” whose purpose is: “to inform and educate policy makers and the broader policy community about events and trends in those societies which are strategically or tactically important to the United States and which frequently restrict access to such information.” . It is a politically biased organization, not an independent news source. So, out with it!2. These two ,  are respectively the Voice of America and MSNBC (not MSNBC really but a direct quote from Bloomberg here). So in reality it is VoA and Bloomberg. Well, let me inform you that we are talking about the same guy - his name is James Brooke, as anyone can plainly see since 2006 he has been stationed in Moscow to report for Bloomberg and as of last summer for the VoA as well. Leaving aside the fact that the VoA is more of a propaganda tool fully owned by US government rather than an independent news source, let's see how Mr. Brooke came about this magic number - “40,000”. Apparently he was there, but did he count the demonstrators himself? No, he quotes Associated Press: “Within an hour, the Associated Press was estimating the turnout at 40,000.”!  Well, it wasn't. Anyone can see the number of AP and that number is 10,000. A little white lie, Mr. Brooke. Or maybe I'm too harsh, maybe AP did broadcast that number intially, but then seeing how preposterous it was quickly brought it down to what all the other major media guys were reporting. In any event, this “40,000 people” thing doesn't hold water.3. Basically the same goes for CBC as well. As I already said in one of the comments not only CBC didn't have its own staff in Minsk that night (I checked this myself here in Toronto with CBC Headquarters), anyone can see how heavily in that article it relied on other media: “Reuters reported...The Associated Press reported...”. As we know already from these ,  quotes both Reuters and Associated Press mentioned 10,000 protesters each.
Given all the above I'm removing the “40,000 people” part from the article.