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Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom
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This outcome could be construed as the sign of the emergence of a Fourth Estate in
China. On the other hand, the media outcry actually coincided with a pre-existing political
concern about the status of migrants as second-class citizens. The disappearance of the
repatriation centers was most probably already in the pipeline. The Sun Zhigang affair was
used as a showcase of the government's rare responsiveness to a hot issue. It is still
widely cited as a model of scandal exposure with a political effect in China.
In January 2008, a passerby was beaten to death by so-called urban management officials
(chengguan) in Wuhan as he was taking pictures of a scene of violence. The press
exposed the disproportionate use of force by the city guards. Many columnists recalled the
Sun Zhigang affair, formulating the hope that the unlawful death would limit the excessive
use of force against simple citizens.
In conclusion, the Chinese press, with its extraordinary commercial expansion in the past
decade, is very diverse in terms of editorial angles as well. Whether the enormous efforts
of some journalists to play a greater role in the public life will lead to more transparency
and less control remains to be seen.
So far, this does not appear to be the case. In the past few weeks, China's press has sunk
back into ideology. It is obsessed with so-called Tibetan “splittists.” Nevertheless, some
Chinese intellectuals signed a petition for negotiations with the Dalai Lama, and had it
published on the Internet. And in the Chinese press itself, a couple of courageous
editorialists have written about Tibet with opinions differing from the official viewpoint,
also in favor of opening talks with the Dalai Lama. This means that some journalists
believe it is safe to express such an opinion, or that it is worth taking the risk.
Human rights lawyers: 15 out of 150,000
Guo Guoting
Chinese Journalists' defense lawyer
Guo Guoting practiced law in China for 21 years, handling more than 1,000 shipping and
trade cases before become involved in human rights when he took on the defense of a
colleague who had been jailed for opposing Shanghai authorities over the eviction of
neighborhoods marked for real estate development.
Now living in Canada, Guo defended practitioners of the Falung Gong spiritual movement,
evicted home owners and jailed journalists, including Shi Tao, a reporter for the daily
Dangdai Shang Bao (Contemporary Business News), who was arrested after the Yahoo
Internet portal identified him as the author of a message to the Democracy Forum web
site in the United States. Consequently, police raided Guo's law offices, seized his files and
placed him under house arrest. Extracts of his presentation follow:
No journalist wants to get involved in such cases because the Chinese government uses its
whole weight to control the media.