Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom - World Press ...
Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom - World Press ...
Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom - World Press ...
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<strong>Beijing</strong> <strong>Olympics</strong> <strong>2008</strong>: <strong>Winning</strong> <strong>Press</strong> <strong>Freedom</strong><br />
27<br />
On Jan. 19 <strong>2008</strong>, the weekly Nanfang Zhoumo organized a prize ceremony for the year<br />
2007. A special prize in the magazines category was given to the review Yanhuang<br />
Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn of Yanhuang). As the name of the magazine appeared on<br />
the screen, Du Daozheng and Wu Si, respectively the editor and assistant editor, went to<br />
collect the prize. At that very moment, a mysterious but clearly influential caller demanded<br />
that the prize be withdrawn. This incident became the “scoop” of the ceremony. Du<br />
Daozheng, having been director of the GAPP, dared to denounce this situation to the<br />
Central Publicity Department, which denied having issued the order. Du Daozheng then<br />
referred to “the mystery call.”<br />
From this, once can see the extent to which the operations of the organs to control the<br />
press are secretive and obscure. No written document is accessible by the public, be it at<br />
the national, provincial or local level.<br />
Not only the Central Publicity Department interferes with the press. On July 30 and 31,<br />
2007 the daily Xiaoxiang Chenbao (the Hunan Daily) and the Economic News of Hunan TV<br />
channel issued information about an increase in the price of tofu and losses suffered by<br />
producers of food based on soya beans. The National Development and Reform<br />
Commission alleged that this information was false, and on Aug. 5, it got the Xinhua<br />
agency to publish an article denouncing the information. But by then the price of tofu had<br />
in fact increased.<br />
Journalists who tell the truth are punished, and the rewriting of articles by the official<br />
media has become a Chinese specialty. For example, the journalist Xiao Shifeng of<br />
Xiaoxiang Chenbao was fired and, in another case, the reporter Zi Beijia of <strong>Beijing</strong> TV was<br />
condemned to a year in prison for an allegedy false report about adulterated dumplings.<br />
The journalist Pang Jiaoming of the China Economic Times (known for its articles about<br />
attacks on “false journalists”) received death threats after publishing an article denouncing<br />
the poor quality of materials used in the manufacture of rails for the nation's first highspeed<br />
rail line between Wuhan and Canton. The government denied the information and<br />
obliged the China Economic Times to fire the reporter.<br />
Zhu Wenna, a journalist on the magazine Faren - which belongs to the official newspaper<br />
Fazhi Ribao (Judicial Daily) - published an article on Jan. 1, <strong>2008</strong> accusing Zhang Zhiguo,<br />
a party official in Xifeng (Liaoning province) of failing to follow correct judicial procedures<br />
in a case against a businessman who had sent a satirical text message about him. The<br />
management of Fazhi Ribao ordered the journalist not to return to work, provoking such<br />
an outcry that the party official was dismissed.<br />
Since the Tiananmen events of 1989, a new method of controlling the press, by exerting<br />
economic pressure, has seen the light of day. Of the media belonging to the party, only<br />
the People’s Daily, the Guangming Ribao, the Jingji Ribao, the China Daily and the Qiushi<br />
review are supported entirely by public finances. The other publications have been pushed<br />
onto the market and mustcompete with each other for advertising revenues. Advertising<br />
agencies and enterprises have thus become the party’s “soft power.”