Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom - World Press ...

Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom
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Panel 3
What reporting conditions
should you expect in Beijing ?
moderator: Alain Wang
Director, Asia Presse; Editor, Asia Magazine
Press freedom: an unkept promise
Vincent Brossel
Head, Asia Desk, Reporters Without Borders
The crisis in Tibet and the international protest demonstrations that accompanied the
running of the Olympic torch have awakened the old demons of Chinese nationalism. With
the complicity of the authorities, Chinese Internet users, journalists and ordinary citizens
have gone to war against “Tibetan separatists” and their supporters, notably the
international media. Some journalists working for liberal Chinese publications, especially
the Nanfang Dushi Bao, have also been harassed.
Since March 10, there have been more or less spontaneous demonstrations against
foreign media accused of being anti-Chinese, which has extended to a commercial boycott
that no doubt seeks to put pressure on countries hesitant about the posture to adopt in
the runup to the Olympic Games.
At the very time when Beijing was expelling the last foreign journalists from Tibet, Chinese
bloggers and the official press launched a violent attack against the “Dalai Lama clique”
and Western media that devoted much space to covering the events in Lhasa.
Usually on the Chinese Internet, it is impossible to publish a message about Tibet unless it
is first filtered and controlled by the cyber-censors. Yet all of a sudden, we have seen
e-mail messages calling for death for “Tibetan separatists.” These threats were turned
against foreign media after the fiasco of the visit to Lhasa arranged for a score of foreign
correspondents. Alerted to what was going on by a group of Tibetan monks, the reporters
wrote about repression and a climate of fear rather than, as the Chinese authorities had
hoped, about the return to order and the sense of responsibility of the Tibetans.
The virulent campaign against foreign journalists has been directed particularly against the
CNN television news channel, whose journalists are accused of being “leaders of the liars”
and racists. The web site anti-cnn.com, which claims to “expose the lies and distortions in
the Western media” and to be maintained by volunteers not connected with the
government, asks young Chinese to send faxes and e-mails to CNN demanding apologies.
Messages with formula insults: “You running dogs are not welcome in China,” “You are
going to suffer as a result of your biased reporting,” “Sooner or later I am going to kill