Should local voices replace foreign correspondents?

Solana Larsen, one of the co-founders of Global Voices, argues that local bloggers and journalists are able to connect us deeply to the stories they tell and are unencumbered by the news production process in Western media newsrooms:

"Events don’t look the same when they are told from the inside out. I am reminded of this daily as I compare our stories with those I see in newspapers.

And I know what we do is special when I hear from foreign news reporters who have to fight with editors to be allowed to tell (or sell) important stories from abroad.

If they do not have the luxury of reporting to an international audience, they must also find a local angle so that Western audiences will connect with the story from something other than a human angle."