| Author |
Message |
Nick-la
Wonder Wit
Joined: July 19, 2003
Posts: 3675
Location: Wasted on this site
|
 Posted:
July 01, 2005 - 07:21 PM |
 
|
| Post subject: No matter the good points,I hate this shithole 4 propaganda |
Print and be damned - China's paper tigers fight on
Beijing's iron grip on news is under attack as this week 2,000 journalists urged the release of jailed colleagues
Jonathan Watts in Guangzhou
Friday July 1, 2005
The Guardian
It could have been the scoop of the year: the deputy governor of Henan province had reportedly conspired with a local mayor to have his wife killed and chopped up. If proven, the murder would rank as one of the worst crimes by a senior official for decades.
But the story was a minefield. Knowing how many papers have been closed down, and how many journalists arrested, for covering such sensitive topics, most editors gave Henan a wide berth.
Article continues
---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------
---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------
The exception was the Nanfang (Southern) Daily Press Group, whose papers are increasingly earning national respect, and official condemnation, for their coverage of China's social ills.
When reports of the killing emerged this month, reporters from two of the group's flagship titles, The Southern Metropolitan Daily and Southern Weekend, flew to the provincial capital, Zhengzhou, and talked to the victim's family, colleagues, and detectives. Off the record sources confirmed the murder and arrest, but a request for an official comment effectively killed the story. Henan's propaganda department ordered a news blackout.
It was nothing new. That week, three other Southern Weekend stories were spiked by the authorities. Nothing was published on police negligence in floods that killed 100 school children, nor on six villagers murdered in battles with gangs recruited by power companies to kick them off their land, nor poor safety planning that led to a fire in which 31 died.
Even after their stories were buried, the journalists used other means to get the news out, via private diaries and field notes posted on the internet or circulated by email. Some revealed they had to travel in near secrecy to avoid local authorities. Others said they used public phones to avoid being traced, and filed from net cafes and through friends.
"As a journalist, my job should be focused on writing a good report. But half of my effort is spent on considering how to get a story past the censors and the likelihood of punishment," said Liu Jianqiang, whose Henan story was spiked.
"By writing out these notes, hopefully I can emerge from this gloomy mood. To act otherwise, by keeping my head low and docile in the face of mistreatment, and by pretending I'm a 'good citizen', my heart would feel bitter."
The risks are great. Last year, three editors from the Nanfang group - Yu Huafeng, Li Minying, and Cheng Yizhong - were imprisoned on fraud charges, an act of revenge by the local public security bureau embarrassed by scoops about police brutality and corruption. Many reporters lost their jobs when the authorities closed down the 21st Century Herald and the New Herald. "It's very traumatic. I don't want to have to go through that again," said a veteran. "Now, every time a sensitive story comes in, I'm nervous. To be a good journalist in China, you can't just be an idealist; you must be a realist too."
But the system that nurtured so many good journalists is still in place. Guangdong was one of the first provinces to open to the outside world. Reflecting its modern business environment, the Southern Weekend blazed a trail in 1992 when its parent company, a party-controlled propaganda organ, transformed what had been a four-page celebrity gossip sheet into a hard-hitting news weekly.
The aim was to attract readers and advertising by being first to the news. Out went stodgy layout, in came smart design.
To encourage hard-hitting journalism, reporters were rewarded for the quantity and quality of their work. It was a huge success. The Nanfang Weekend now has a 1.3m circulation nationwide. By breaking stories before officialdom had a chance to censor them, it and sister papers such as the Southern Metropolitan Daily and The Beijing News, have had more influence than others in shaping public debate on the dramatic social changes now taking place.
As well as scoops about Sars and the Three Gorges dam, the Nanfang Weekly made the biggest splash of 2003 by investigating the case of Sun Zhigang, who died in police custody. Its coverage forced a change of national policy on detentions, and humiliated local police chiefs.
"This was our Watergate scandal. It transformed attitudes," said Wang Xiaoshan, a former Southern Metropolitan employee. "Until then, journalists had put the priority on self-survival. After, everyone wanted to break important news. More and more young reporters now want to be heroes."
The Nanfang spirit permeated the media. "I think the group has greatly influenced journalism," said Liu Aimin, a producer of Oriental Horizon, the edgiest news program on the state-run channel, CCTV. "They have moved away from control by the party and the government, and towards the market. This has changed the way they produce news."
The Communist party's propaganda department lists stories which must not be published. Several journalists confirmed such lists exist, but warned that providing copies could be considered a breach of state security. In quiet weeks, lists contain few subjects: typically, Taiwan, t¡bet or religious freedom. At other times, they stretch to 25 or more items: riots, strikes, and alleged affairs of senior leaders. No editor would disobey such orders, but the role of newspapers has become more adversarial.
"Nanfang group has started a nationwide movement," said a former employee. "I think most journalists don't stand on the side of the party, they stand on the side of society. There has been a big change in the attitude of the media."
The authorities appear rattled. Propaganda officials now convey orders by phone. A more direct control is to replace editors with propaganda officials, such as Xiang Xi, latest chief of Southern Weekend. There are more sinister means: in the past two years, at least five Chinese and two foreign journalists (recently, Ching Cheong of the Straits Times) have been arrested. According to the rights group, Reporters Without Borders, China has jailed 30 reporters and 62 cyber dissidents - more than any other country.
But the media's assertiveness was apparent in an open petition this week by more than 2,000 journalists against the detention of former Nanfang editors Yu and Li. Their colleague, Cheng Yizhong, former editor-in-chief of the Southern Metropolitan Daily, has been released after an outcry. In April, he was awarded the World Press Freedom prize by Unesco. Stripped of his post, kicked out of the party, and refused permission to attend the prize-giving, Mr Cheng wrote an uncompromising acceptance speech. "Terror is everywhere. Lies are everywhere," he said. "I believe that in the near future, we will look back and find this insane and absurd episode to be absolutely unthinkable."
It is still difficult to heed his call. The Henan story shrank to a terse report in the local paper that deputy governor Lu had been arrested and stripped of his positions. The only explanation was the official one: "Lu was suspected of involvement in a crime." Even in Nanfang's stable of papers, not a word on the case was reported.
· Additional reporting by Huang Lisha
______________
I am a pessimistic fellow, but taking everything into account, I DO BELIEVE that this situation can get better. The more that foreign companies and people flow and drip into the rural areas, which is an inevitability, the gov's handling and style of "they are just chinese people, we can imprison them and tell any lie we want" will be less useful.
Why do I always get this massive feeling that I care more about this stuff than chinese people who love their country la so much la. |
_________________
I'm surrounded by idiots. |
|
|
|
*CheerLeader*Mao
Post Roaster
Joined: July 07, 2004
Posts: 4678
Location: frenCh belgiuM
|
| Posted:
July 06, 2005 - 07:45 AM |
|
|
becauSE u have been free to care abouT it.
chinese have not been free to think about these things, and iF they stooD out they were usually killED at some poiNT. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Forum FAQ
Search
Preferences
Watched Topics
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
