Long march to freedom
China made great play of granting relative freedom to visiting journalists covering the Olympic Games. But what will Chinese colleagues get out of it? LIZ ACKROYD asked colleagues in Beijing
AS THE WORLD’S athletes arrived in Beijing full of hopes and big dreams, Chinese journalists set their own sights on winning the same rights and privileges granted to their western colleagues during the Games. Like western journalists, they watched the way the authorities treated the western media, but with a particular interest.
The Beijing Olympics provided an opportunity for China to experiment and observe on a small scale the consequences of allowing greater press freedom and now Chinese journalists are hopeful that, as the Western journalists leave the Olympic city, press freedom in China will continue to grow.
Chen Tao of the All-China Journalists Association (ACJA) believes China has already accepted the need for media freedom. “Chinese journalists now are enjoying more and more freedom. I think the Chinese government has already learned that it’s impossible to control media.
“We could see this from the news coverage of the earthquake in Sichuan. Chinese journalists arrived at the epicentre on the first day. During the earthquake relief, Chinese media were free to cover every detail of the event. Frankly, I’m very proud of my colleagues for their covering of the earthquake.”
This widespread reporting of the aftermath of the earthquake was possible because of changes made by China in the lead-up to the Olympics, designed to pacify the West. Free media access was one of promises made by China in 2001 when it won the right to host the Olympiad. As a show of good faith, in May 2007 the authorities announced new, temporary regulations for accredited international journalists. The “Service Guide for Foreign Media” stipulated that “the freedom of foreign journalists in their news coverage will be ensured”. It guaranteed that journalists would be able to travel freely and conduct interviews with any consenting Chinese citizens.
But ITN correspondent John Ray, who was manhandled and detained in Beijing trying to cover a Free Tibet protest on August 13, believes that few journalists would have had confidence in that. “Any prejudices held by journalists have been confirmed. Chinese authorities have fallen well short of promises made about complete press freedom during the Games,” he said.
He was roughed up and detained by security officers as his crew filmed protestors unfurling a “Free Tibet” banner inside the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, close to the Bird Nest stadium. He was pinned down by police, dragged along the ground and forced into a police van.
An NUJ member, he told the Journalist: “I was shouting in English and in my somewhat limited Chinese that I was a journalist. I couldn’t get my accreditation out of my pocket because they were pinning my hands down. They didn’t seem to care much that I was a journalist or who I am; they just wanted to stop us reporting on the protest.”
This was not an isolated incident. The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) received more than 30 confirmed cases of reporting interference since the press centre opened. The grievances included ten cases of violence and eight cases of damage to equipment or destruction of photos. The FCCC said there were many more non-confirmed cases.
Journalists complained they were followed, filmed and photographed by Chinese officials who refused to identify themselves. John Ray said officials seemed jumpy throughout the Olympics: “We have all noticed that the Chinese seem particularly twitchy and nervous. My cameraman and I have been physically pushed and blocked from filming on at least two occasions. On a third occasion we were followed by plain clothes officers who took notes and photographed us.”
When 20,000 foreign journalists descended on Beijing at the start of the Games, they discovered their access to various websites had been blocked, despite assurances to the contrary from China and the IOC. It emerged that the IOC had made a deal with Olympic organisers to allow China to block some “sensitive” sites.
The head of the IOC press commission, Kevan Gosper, said: “I regret that it now appears that there will be limitations on website access during Games time. I also now understand that some IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games-related.”
Sophie Richardson, the Asia Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch, stressed her disappointment: “It’s up to the Chinese government and the IOC to ensure media freedom during the Beijing Games, and so far both have failed miserably,” she said. “The [International Olympic] Committee might also examine its own complicity in the problem.”
But China believes it has vastly improved its attitudes towards freedom of the press. When Channel 4’s Alex Thompson grilled IOC officials at an Olympic press conference, Wei Wang, the secretary general of the Beijing organising committee, explained the slow path to press freedom: “After 30 years of reform China has developed greatly, [but] we cannot allow this country to be in chaos.”
Some Chinese, such as the ACJA’s Chen Tao, believe the Communist Party chose the path to press freedom of its own volition, not because of the Games. “Changes to media freedom are not only because of the Olympics. The Olympics speeded up this progress. If we had had no Olympics, China would still have developed to be more and more free in the media,” he said.
Ma Guihua is a London-based reporter for Xinhua, China’s official news agency. She too believes China is moving forward because it needs to, not because of Western pressure. “The media in China is not static — it is changing and progressing all the time. It will reflect the needs of the people,” she said.
China is starting to become more critical of itself. Ma Guihua cited TV programmes that invite discussion of how China should move forward. And the media industry is growing: “If you go to China now you will see new newspapers and magazines making appearances in the streets.”
Despite his ongoing battles with officials to report freely, John Ray agrees that China has realised it must relax media restrictions. “I’ve been in China for two years, and it’s true: it is lots easier than before,” he said.
Chen Tao confirms this: “China is developing, not only in the economy, but in every aspect, including media freedom. Maybe sometimes you may see some problems in this field, but believe me, my friend, China only needs time to improve, and tomorrow will be better.”