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

Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom
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This control takes several forms. One is to block foreign web sites and jam their radio
transmissions. The BBC Chinese service, which has been broadcasting since 1941, is
constantly subject to this kind of interference.
Currently, we broadcast four hours a day to China on the short waves, with a mixture of
news and current affairs programs and feature programs on education, British life, sport
and entertainment.
We also have two web sites: bbcchinese.com, which is a news site, and bbcchina.com, which
is an education site.
At the moment, our short wave transmissions are constantly jammed in China, and our
news web site is blocked as well, but the education site (bbcchina.com) is accessible in
China.
Recently, the BBC News site in English has been unblocked, along with some other web
sites (such as Wikipedia).
I want to stress here that this kind of censorship is effective, but never 100 per cent so.
Our loyal and persistent listeners can try to switch to different frequencies to listen to our
programs, and in some parts of China, people can hear us quite clearly.
Regarding our web site bbcchinese.com, many people in China can use other means to get
to us, so the blocking is never entirely effective; I recently asked several well-respected
scholars if they can access our web site, and they tell me very confidently that they can if
they want to.
Nevertheless, it does interfere with people’s normal listening and reading habits, which
means that we can’t reach our audience in as freely as we hope, and our interaction with
our audience is severely restricted.
In January 2005, after the death of the former party secretary, Zhao Ziyang, we had a
phone-in program to talk about his legacy. One young caller told us that if it were not for
the reports he had heard on the BBC after Zhao had died, he wouldn’t have known that
Zhao Ziyang was such an important figure in recent history and did so much for China’s
reform; he learned from school that Zhao was one of those responsible for the troubles
during the 1989 turmoil. In fact, we had broadcast several series about 1989 student
movement and often interviewed about Zhao Ziyang and others, but obviously this young
man had had no access to this information.
Apart from blocking and jamming, we also have to deal with official interventions or
complaints about our programs. From time to time, we get phone calls or letters from the
Chinese officials complaining about our coverage of Falun Gong, Taiwan or East Turkistan
[Xinjiang] separatist movement.
As program makers, we need to go to China and interview people; and we need to apply
for a journalist visa. Sometimes we get it, sometimes not. In the past years, applications
to make a series about Mao Zedong, about Chinese media reforms and about petitioners’
situation were all denied.