CHINA DETAINING, INTIMIDATING JOURNALISTS IN EFFORT TO CONTROL PUBLIC IMAGE ABROAD
MORE OPEN RULES FOR OLYMPIC GAMES REPORTEDLY IGNORED AS STATE HARASSES REPORTERS
13 August 2007

As China officially began the countdown to the Beijing Olympic Games, various groups report foreign journalists have been intimidated, harassed and even detained, while trying to do their work in China. There is an apparent campaign from the highest levels to limit the ability of Chinese citizens to speak out about corruption, state violence, ecological crisis and authoritarianism; the state is apparently not embarrassed by being seen as a closed totalitarian system.

Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, is quoted in the press as saying "Instead of a pre-Olympic 'Beijing spring' of greater freedom and tolerance of dissent, we are seeing the gagging of dissidents, a crackdown on activists, and attempts to block independent media coverage".

Adams adds that China is discriminating against its own journalists, blocking access to information, to locations or to interviews, that foreign journalists obtain more freely. "Beijing’s failure to ensure equal freedoms for Chinese journalists not only violates freedom of expression, but is a form of invidious discrimination against its own nationals, particularly as China’s own constitution guarantees freedom of the press."

China's history of manipulation of media and persecution of journalists, both domestic and foreign, is extensive and well-documented. Upon taking the helm, President Hu Jintao reportedly held high-level Communist party meetings in which he infamously called for a "smokeless war" against press, bloggers and dissidents.

In an effort to allow more openness, in what some outsiders have been hoping would be a first step toward greater transparency throughout the Chinese system, Beijing officially instated temporary rules for foreign journalists, that allow them access to any Chinese official or citizen who willingly gives consent to be interviewed. The rules are a vast improvement on the standard state media controls imposed by the government, but observers say they are not being followed.

First and foremost is the problem of "sensitive" news items, an official designation given by top officials to issues they prefer not to have the public or the world at large get a good look at. These can range from corruption cases, to allegations of slave-labor, environmental catastrophe, or illegal detentions and other human rights abuses. It has long been a polemical issue what exactly is the number of people executed each year by the Chinese government. There is at present no independently verifiable statistic and many cases have no clear judicial process or evidentiary procedure, by international standards.

But it is political dissidents that seem to be the biggest threat. Beijing is trying to limit the rights of pro-Tibet or pro-Taiwan activists to use the 2008 Games as a platform to have their voice heard across the world. Human Rights Watch reports that, while journalists operating in China say they have seen improved access to dissidents and to officials, "reporting efforts remain routinely hobbled by government officials, police and plainclothes thugs who claim ignorance of the new regulations or willfully flout them." [s]

• HRW: "China: Attacks on Media Violate Olympic Commitments"
• HRW: "You Will Be Harassed and Detained: Media Freedoms Under Assault in China Ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games"
• HRW: "China: No Progress on Rights One Year Before Olympics"
• CNN: "Group: China detaining journalists"
• CNN: "Beijing begins Olympic countdown"

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