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

Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom
38
I will go back to 2006 to shed a little light about how the Chinese government has brought
these new regulations into effect. In the past, the Foreign Ministry did not recognize the
Foreign Correspondents Club. They still don't. We did not have any communication. We
had a meeting in the spring of 2006 which was quite interesting. We had three members
from the Foreign Correspondents Club and two people from the Foreign Ministry. That's
when they started to float a trial balloon about what we could consider to be free
reporting during the Olympics - or at least that is my interpretation.
Before, every time Beijing correspondents wanted to report in a local area we would have
to get permission from the local Foreign Ministry office. Of course, if you were going to
cover a sensitive topic, you wouldn't apply. It became a cat and mouse game. Some
people would go to an HIV-AIDS village in the middle of the night and then leave and
hope the authorities would not find them.
Then the Foreign Ministry suggested that rather than ask permission, you could send a fax
and inform the local foreign affairs office you are coming. We said, “Well, if it is
voluntary...”
They then came out with the new regulations, which are actually more liberal than we had
expected. It basically says that to interview organizations or individuals in China, foreign
journalists need only obtain their prior consent. And that is our key phrase. We advise
anyone going to China to carry a copy of the regulations. Download it from the Internet.
Carry it with you in Chinese and in English in case you run into obstacles. Of course, if
they really don't want you, they will just say “Well, we have a counter-regulation,” which
will not be produced. But give it a try.
We did a survey last July on how were these regulations were working. And we found
quite a few cases in which they had not been observed. We put out a statement ahead of
the Olympics saying that China had not yet met the requirements as we understood them.
The government was furious. They said, essentially, “Why don't you commend us for
making an effort and making these improvements.”
A couple of days later there was a glowing piece in English on the front page of the China
Daily saying how wonderful conditions were for foreign correspondents. Of course, not a
single correspondent was quoted in the story. That was their response.
We did find improvements. Conditions for foreign correspondents in China are better now
than they were before the regulations. However, they are nowhere near what one would
expect of an Olympic host nation.
In October, we sent a list of cases to the International Olympic Committee, including
examples of several journalists who had been assaulted, together with our
recommendations of how to improve working conditions. Basically we did not get a
response. One of our board members met in private with an IOC official and was told
there was nothing the committee could do.