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