|
Chinese Regime Tightens Its
Grip on Media Ahead of Olympic Games
Caylan Ford
Epoch
Times
Wednesday December 12, 2007
Apparently fed up with hearing criticism over its
lack of media transparency, Chinese authorities this week banned
representatives of press freedom organization Reporters Without
Borders from entering the country.
Reporters Without Borders was planning to hold a press conference
in Beijing on December 8 to decry Chinese authorities' failure
to improve freedom of the press. They were denied visas to enter
the country, and instead held the press event in Hong Kong.
"At a time when the government is compiling files on foreign
journalists and human rights activists in advance of the Olympic
Games, this refusal is evidence of its determination to keep critics
at a distance," said Reporters Without Borders in a press
statement.
"The Chinese authorities are clearly not prepared to let
people remind them of the [promises] they gave to improve the
situation of human rights and, in particular, press freedom when
they were awarded the 2008 Olympics in 2001," it continued.
(Article continues below)
While bidding to host the 2008 Summer Olympics in 2001, Chinese
authorities promised that the Games would help improve China's
human rights and press freedom, and that foreign reporters would
have "complete freedom to report" during the Olympics.
China is currently the world's leading jailer of journalists,
bloggers and other cyber-dissidents. Reporters Without Borders
knows of 33 journalists currently imprisoned, and at least 49
cyber-dissidents, most of whom are detained in appalling conditions.
At least three Epoch Times reporters are in prison in China today.
Starting on January 1st of this year, Chinese authorities promised
to ease restraints on the activities of foreign journalists, allowing
free and transparent reporting environment and permission to interview
any consenting subject.
Since then, Reporters Without Borders has documented at least
60 cases of Chinese police detaining, harassing, or otherwise
obstructing the activities of foreign journalists in their work.
Last month, news broke that Chinese authorities are compiling
a database of personal information on some 28,000 foreign reporters
expected to be in the country during the Olympic games.
According to the Associated Press, a survey of 163 China-based
foreign reporters found that 40 percent of them have experienced
some form of state interference to their work since January 1st,
including surveillance, detention, and intimidation of their sources.
On November 20, for example, A Swiss Television reporter and
her Chinese cameraman were manhandled and detained for seven hours
by Chinese police in Hebei province, near Beijing. On the same
day in Hubei province in central China, a Swiss husband and wife
team of photographers were arrested and detained while doing a
report on villagers ?who had been threatened and beaten in connection
with a land dispute.
In October, British journalists were seized, roughed up, and
detained when they uncovered secret "black jails" in
Beijing where Chinese authorities hold and torture thousands of
(mostly rural) citizens who go to Beijing to seek redress for
injustices.
In September, a BBC correspondent reporter who traveled to China's
Hebei province to report on civil unrest was arrested and detained
for a day by authorities. When he was released, he discovered
the bolts holding his car's wheels to the chassis had been removed.
The steely hands of the regime made their presence felt in Canada
last month as well. Just hours before CBC was set to air a documentary
about the persecution of the Falun Gong in China, the documentary
was pulled. Though CBC denies it pulled the documentary due to
political pressure from China, they admit to having received several
phone calls from the Chinese embassy. The film was shown on CBC
weeks later with edits, including the removal of an interview
quote in which the Beijing Olympics is compared to the 1936 Berlin
Olympics in Nazi Germany.
Reporters Without Borders attempted to draw attention to the
issue of press freedom with an informal media conference on August
6 outside the office of the Olympic Games Organization Committee
in Beijing. Several members of the foreign media that covered
the event were detained and interrogated, as were the four Reporters
Without Borders representatives present.
In November, Chinese authorities launched a crackdown what is
calls the "four fakes" of journalism, including "fake
reporters" and "fake news," and "fake publications."
It is not immediately clear what criteria is used to assess the
veracity of the above, though the vague nature of the mandate
makes it easy for authorities to classify any media organization
or reporter who does not toe the party line as "fake,"
allowing the Communist Party to dictate what constitutes real
news.
The Chinese media has fared even worse than their foreign counterparts.
Already entirely state-run or state-approved, the Chinese media
has faced even tougher restrictions on their activities recently.
Last month, Chinese authorities issued an order prohibiting the
Chinese media from covering stories that reflect negatively on
the regime, including stories about environmental problems and
public health issues. In August, according to the China Daily,
a sweep targeting "fake" publications shut down some
300 media operations not registered with the Communist Party.
Article 51 of the Olympic Charter states that the IOC must take
"all necessary steps in order to ensure the fullest coverage
by the different media and the widest possible audience in the
world for the Olympic Games." The Charter also states that
all decisions regarding media coverage of the Olympics must be
made by the IOC – not by the host nation.
Critics and human rights advocates have pointed out that Beijing
is in contravention of several other Olympic bylaws. According
to China Aid Association, the Chinese Public Security Bureau has
issued a confidential order banning any broadly defined "antagonistic"
persons, "illegal organizations" and "media which
could harm the Olympic Games" from the attending the Beijing
Olympics.
According to a report from the Associated Press, Chinese authorities
have also stated that adherents of the Falun Gong – an ancient
practice of meditation and moral improvement – which was
banned by the Communist Party in 1999, will not be allowed to
attend the games.
The Olympic bylaws state that "Any form of discrimination
with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion,
politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to
the Olympic Movement."
Reporters Without Borders has written numerous letters to the
International Olympic Committee asking the organization to exert
pressure on Beijing to honor its promises on human rights and
press freedom (see Opinion page for more). They say the IOC has
responded simply that it is not a "political" organization.
The IOC did not respond to inquiries by The Epoch Times at the
time of this article.
|
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
|
|
