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Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom 24 China’s editors as watchdogs -- biting for the Communist Party Gao Yu WAN Golden Pen of Freedom winner 1995, 1st UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize winner 1997 The new rules governing the work of foreign journalists during the preparation and running of the Beijing Olympic Games, approved by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao entered into force on Jan. 1, 2000. These rules did not cover Tibet, where foreign journalists must still demand special permission to operate. On that day, the Reuters news agency interviewed China's best-known political prisoner, Bao Tong. Shortly afterwards, Reporters Without Borders sent a delegation to China to meet with government authorities. Everyone then thought that the Chinese government had decided to keep the promise it made in 2001 as part of its Olympics bid, and that this was the start of an improvement of the rights of man and freedom of the press in China. Nevertheless, foreign journalists were ceaselessly harassed in their work throughout 2007; they were arrested or beaten more than 80 times, while the number of Chinese journalists and media professionals condemned for their opinions has not stopped growing. During the demonstrations in Lhasa on March 10, foreign journalists and even those from Hong Kong with permission to work in Tibet, were expelled. On April 3, 2008, the human rights campaigner Hu Jia, who is equally well-known as a “citizen journalist,” was condemned by the Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing to three and a half years in prison and loss of his civic rights for a year. As the Olympic Games approach, this cases demonstrates in a terribly symbolic way the position of the Communist Party toward freedom of expression. It also shows the reply of the Chinese authorities to the demands of the international community. The detention of Chinese journalists because of the Olympic Games did not begin in 2008. I think it is necessary to consider my own case. On Sept. 23, 1993, Beijing failed to obtain the organization of the 2000 Olympic Games. I was arrested on Oct. 2; on Nov. 10 the following year, the Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing condemned me to six years in prison and a year’s loss of my civic rights for “divulging state secrets.” During an interrogation I stated that at the start of 1993, I had sent two articles on current affairs to the Mirror, a left-wing review in Hong Kong. That was the only proof authorities were able to use against me. They used me as a “symbol” before the international community, but also as a pawn in the negotiations during the visit of President Jiang Zemin to the United States in 1997 and that of President Clinton to China in 1998.
Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom 25 During these two years, my prison frequently received orders to arrange my release as part of a “political exchange.” But it was not until 1999, during the Chinese New Year, just before the visit of Prime Minister Zhu Rongji to the United States, that I was freed “for medical reasons.” Throughout my imprisonment, several of the international organizations participating in this conference as well as Hong Kong journalists and the Hong Kong Journalists Association supported and helped me. It is only now, 15 years later, that I have the possibility of thanking you personally. Sadly, the situation of the press in China has still not evolved. If you compare my case to that of Hu Jia, my punishment was heavier and the legal proceedings were even more unjust. Not only was my family not allowed to attend my trial, but my defense lawyers were also prevented from doing so. Nevertheless, in comparison between the situation of the press in China in 1993 and in 2008, I think that, in this Olympic year, it is much more catastrophic. The position of human rights and press freedom in China has slowly worsened over the years, and this tendency has intensified since the Tiananmen Square massacre. Deng Xiaoping did nothing more than carry out economic reforms without advancing political reforms by a single step. Violence and repression have been used to assure the stability of society, while the gap between rich and poor has been widening in an alarming way. Many problems have come to light as a result of the dramatic question of human rights, the fracturing of society, the degradation of the environment, the corruption of officials and difficulties weighing on the poorest sectors of society (such as education, health, housing, land use, financial risks and inflation), and the sharp contradictions at the heart of society. As for the current project of creating a “harmonious society,” it consists in reality of preventing the population from understanding or even of interesting itself in the somber history of our country and its present circumstances. Neither the Communist Party nor the various authorities have accepted this responsibility. On the contrary, they continue to use the traditional method of controlling the press to prevent the population from understanding reality. For 60 years, there has been no law to protect Chinese journalists and media professionals. In the 1980s, the National People’s Congress began preparing a draft of a law on the press, but it was then impossible to defend the rights of journalists openly. There were violent discussions between the draft’s defenders, such as Hu Jiwei, a member of the Congress, who supported a text guaranteeing respect for the law by the Communist Party, and the government. But a representative of the Leftist forces, Hu Qiaomu, in charge of ideology, argued that the law should apply only to journalists and information professionals. Hu Jiwei refuted this: “It is necessary also to control those who control the press, those who control the officials as well as the organs in charge of the press.” Following three amendments to the text, the Leftist current succeeded in stifling
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