The Roundtable Discussion Summary on Freedom of the Press and ...

<strong>The</strong> <strong>Roundtable</strong> <strong>Discussion</strong> <strong>Summary</strong> on Freedom of the
Press and Economic Development
Columbia Global Centers (East Asia·Beijing)
In his recently published book, Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-open: A Free Press
for a New Century, Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University, proposed that, in a
globalized and internet-dominated era, preventing the freedom of the press in a certain
region is just like preventing the freedom of the press in the entire world. On Nov. 3,
2010, Columbia University held the inaugural forum of “A Free Press for a Global
Societyp series. <strong>The</strong> introduction by President Bollinger and the first panel of “Great
Debate” focusing on China’s effort to create a global media voice were webcasted to
Columbia University’s global centers in Beijing, Paris, Amman and Mumbai.
In addition to the webcast event, Beijing Global Centers cooperated with the
Journalism School of People University to hold a roundtable discussion on the topic of
“Freedom of the Press and Economic Development” on Nov, 3, 2010. Scholars in the
field of journalism, international relations, and economic development, as well as
China’s leading media practitioners participated in the discussion. <strong>The</strong>y reviewed the
progress achieved by the Chinese news media, examined existing problems, explored
potential improvements, and discussed what the Chinese news media can do to help the
international community to have an objective and balanced view of China. Below is a
summary the discussion.
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<strong>The</strong> Competitive and Fast-changing Chinese News Media
China has been developing rapidly and is already the world’s second largest
economy. Typically, Western countries are impressed with these economic
achievements, but fail to notice the great changes that have transformed the Chinese
news media. <strong>The</strong>y remain stuck in the mindset that it still serves as a propaganda tool.
Participating scholars agreed that communication resources in China is considered
a powerful resource for ideology and national security, and thus should be subject to
strict control. Despite this, the Chinese news media is not all one-sided and homogenous;
on the contrary, in order to attract audience and increase influence, the Chinese media is
adept at using various resources, innovating operation models, building brand, and
maximizing profits. As a matter of fact, the Chinese media has already become a major
industry and a new source of economic growth. In the past, the Chinese economy mainly
relied on the manufacturing and heavy industry to develop, but in the future, the media
industry will experience some of the most robust growth.
Under government control, the Chinese media has trended towards
“de-politicization”. Firstly, on the local level, city newspapers and evening newspapers
are taking an increasingly large market share. <strong>The</strong>y focus mostly on trivial topics of
families’ daily life, catering to the taste of the lower-middle class. Secondly, the financial
media, less involved in ideology and therefore less subject to control, has developed
rapidly. With 200 million stock investors and 200 million internet users, China has
experienced dramatic economic and social changes. Since people’s asset structure
changed significantly, asset management has become a major issue that concerns many
Chinese people. A sharp increase of demand for financial information has driven fast
growth of the financial media. Thanks to relatively relaxed restrictions from the
government, the financial media witnesses strong innovation, fierce market competition,
as well as clear market stratification. Consequently, the financial media has become
increasingly sophisticated and professional.
Driven by a strong profit motive, even the most orthodox government-run Chinese
media organization has constantly innovated itself in order to attract its audience, expand
market share and increase influence. For example, the Xinhua News Agency has
undergone tremendous change in the past 30 years. It founded the Xinhua net and, more
recently, added a TV station. Another official newspaper, Reference News, has tried hard
to stabilize its sales volume. Global Times, affiliated to the People’s Daily, has notably
expanded its market share. <strong>The</strong> China Central Television (CCTV) also has been
innovating constantly in order to improve viewers’ ratings. Even its official “National
News Broadcast Program” pays attention to ratings. Despite the fact that
government-run Chinese media organizations, with the local communist party
established in each of them, are still under strict control, they compete fiercely against
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one another.
<strong>The</strong> Chinese media audience also appears to be differentiated. For example, the
Global Times inspires nationalist sentiment while the Southern Weekend holds a more
liberal view. <strong>The</strong>y both have distinct, sizable reader bases. <strong>The</strong> diversity of the audience
market has provided incentive to push the Chinese media toward market economy.
After comparing the environment of mainland China with those of Taiwan and
western countries, some media professionals felt that the development opportunity for
the media of mainland China was more favorable at present. While many Western
newspapers are out of business after the financial crisis, in mainland China, hundreds of
millions of readers still regularly read newspapers and journals. If the Chinese print
press can continue to try hard to provide what readers like to read, profit potential will
be huge, given the on-going trend of “de-politicization” and diversification. In the U.S.,
as more readers give up reading newspapers and journals, the majority of the U.S. media
companies have yet to develop profitable business practices in the internet and blog
environment. <strong>The</strong>refore, the Chinese media is now in its golden time.
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Areas of Potential Improvements
Some scholars pointed out media organizations should not be profit-driven only,
they should shoulder the important responsibility of influencing society. In addition to
making a profit by providing what the audience needs, they should also help establish a
society ruled by law through disseminating and analyzing information.
Some scholars believed that the deepening of globalization makes it
comparatively easy to invoke a nationalist sentiment at any time. If the Chinese news
media wants to create a friendly international environment for China’s development, it
needs to step up its communication effort, improve information sharing, facilitate
dialogue between different countries, and increase cross-culture and cross-nation
understanding and trust. To this end, there is ample room for the Chinese media to
improve.
When reporting international news to domestic audience, the Chinese media tends
to stay at a superficial level and often fails to provide any in-depth analysis and insight.
It often selects and emphasizes the Chinese elements in those events. Take the U.S.
midterm election as an example. Both China’s official and market-oriented media
consistently focused their coverage on the issue of the RMB exchange rate and
American politicians’ criticism of China in their election campaigns. In reality, the
focus of the topic for the U.S. midterm election was the U.S. economy, not China.
Biased coverage affects the public perception of events, thereby affecting the
government’s decision-making.
Furthermore, the Chinese media lacks long-term, follow-up coverage of
international events. <strong>The</strong>y often swarm to ad hoc reporting after some high-profile
incident occurs. For example, it had been quite a while since the US strategic center
shifted back towards Asia. However, the China media portrayed the return of the US to
Asia as something that suddenly happened in the past one or two months. Similarly, a lot
of international relations issues, such as the South China Sea and the Yellow Sea issue,
the bilateral relations with neighboring countries in the South-east Asia, and the role of
the U.S. in such relations, did not emerge overnight. Instead, they evolved and
developed over a long period of time. <strong>The</strong> lack of long-term, follow-up coverage for
these issues by the Chinese media misled the Chinese people to believe that all these
happened suddenly.
China needs to have a healthy, collaborative and mutually beneficial relationship
with the rest of the world, which requires that editors and journalists responsible for
international reporting should not limit themselves to the utilitarian mentality of
selecting only “eye-catching” news, but have a rational approach. This will ensure that
news coverage is truly beneficial to the cooperation between China and the world, and
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China’s economic development as well. As media’s coverage is quite influential to
public opinion, which, in turn, will affect the government’s choice of policies, it is
especially important for the media to present balanced perspectives. To some extent,
public opinions on international relations and foreign economic affairs have already
affected policy-making.
Some scholars observed that, in todays’ world, domestic politics and economy have
become more and more internationalized, while international politics and economy have
become more and more domestic. As globalization trend has developed in depth and
breadth, nationalist sentiments have flared in many places. Because the media plays a
special role in guiding public opinion and disseminating ideas, it is likely that the media
will be used by certain interest groups or a school of thought to influence public opinion.
Some scholars emphasized that the public should be aware that nationalism is not equal
to patriotism; only rational, tolerant and open nationalism can have something in
common with patriotism. Narrow-minded, xenophobic and extreme nationalism is
irrelevant to patriotism.
Under such circumstances, reports from the Chinese media should be based on
objective facts. Although every media organization promotes itself as objective and
truthful, under the current secularization and diversification trend, the media has to
represent a certain interest group, or channel the aspirations and thoughts of certain
groups of people. How has this fact affected the Chinese media recently?
For an instance, when the Chinese media reported on the speech by the U.S.
Secretary of the State Hillary Clinton in Cambodia, they used either “Hillary provoked
Cambodia-China relations” or “Hillary incited Cambodia not to be over-reliant on
China”, very emotional headlines. As a matter of fact, there is a large paragraph in
Clinton’s speech saying “China is a great country, China will have a very bright
future….We fully understand the special relationship between Cambodia and China, and
we hope this kind of relationship can be developed.” Of course she did make the
following remarks: “I hope you can surely raise questions with China and not be
over-reliant on a single country”. In order to be eye-catching, some of the Chinese media
left out the main intent of Clinton’s speech and only used her last sentence to make a
provocative headline.
This reflects that although China has already become the world’s second largest
economy, many Chinese people do not have the mindset and heart that citizens of large
countries should have; rather, they still feel victimized and are very sensitive. If media
practitioners also share this sort of narrow mindset and sentiment, they will surely
inappropriately mislead their audience.
As China is rising as a major world power and challenging the status quo of the
world order, it certainly will face accusations from entrenched interest groups. At a time
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like this, it is imperative that the media have a high sense of social responsibility and
historical accuracy when it comes to selecting news for the audience. A mature and
well-developed China media should be an integrated part of China’s healthy economic
and social development, and globalization as well. In this regard, the Chinese media still
has substantial room for improvement.
For the benefit of China’s development, it is very important to report Chinese
events to the international audience, establishing a good Chinese image and generating
favorable public opinion in the world. In this regard, the Chinese media is not doing
enough. <strong>The</strong> reporters and journalists who provide China coverage to the international
audience are largely the same group of people, who also serve the domestic audience,
with similar editing policies. As the domestic news media still struggles with a variety of
problems, how can the Chinese media’s engagement with the world do a better job? In
fact, conservatives with an old-mind set still controls both domestic news media and
China media’s reach out to the world. In addition, quality news reporting, targeted to the
international audience, largely depends on an individual journalist’s subjective judgment,
professional capability and integrity because of the lack of clear editing rules or
guidelines that is suited to the international audience.
A media practitioner proposed that in every story, especially in key stories, the
media should report, explain and elaborate clearly to a foreign audience what the
Chinese people were doing and thinking, how the Chinese formed their impressions of
foreign countries, and what kind of impact had been generated. In one instance, she went
to Washington D.C. to elucidate for the American experts from governmental
departments and think tanks how the Chinese media had influenced Chinese people’s
impression of the U.S. She elaborated with the coverage of the Yellow Sea issue as an
example. By this effort, she and American experts were able to engage in mutual
communication, although they did not necessarily agree with each other. This was a big
step forward since Westerners often perceived a demonized China in their media. This
was only a small event, but it might have a big effect. <strong>The</strong>refore, the establishment of a
good image of China in the world should be based on more stories like this through our
continuous and gradual effort. We should think hard to find an intelligent and honest
way to let the international community to appreciate a real China.
As China grows rapidly, the China threat theory has gained prominence in the
international community. Some scholars pointed out that our misuse of wording and
limited understanding of international relations could partly be blamed for letting our
adversaries gain ground on us. For example, Deng Xiaoping once characterized our
diplomatic strategies with a Chinese idiom, which was translated as “keep a low profile
and conceal our true abilities to bide our time.” When it was spread out, it took on a
meaning that was different from what Deng might have intended it to be. It made many
people in the world thought that China wanted to accumulate strength in order to
achieve a certain goal or take revenge.
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More Freedom of Speech and a Better Chinese News Media
Some scholars at the discussion agreed that China’s news media was less competent
than the US media at having its message reach the international community and gaining
a say in the world. <strong>The</strong>y pointed out one major reason was that the Chinese news media
was allowed to have only one “single voice”. This restriction actually works against the
credibility of China’s news media. In comparison, there are a variety of voices in the U.S.
media, with the mainstream opinion often inevitably dominating all the others. In China,
high-ranking officials often set a tone for the “single voice” that is allowed. Without any
reasoning and debates, the government-designated “single voice” in the media cannot
even gain credibility from its own people, let alone the international community. It has
limited influence on society as people simply shrug it off as “official propaganda”.
<strong>The</strong>refore, if China wants to improve its communication capability or influence
international public opinion, it must give academia freedom of speech. A mainstream
voice will find its way from a variety of voices; and core values will stand out in a
pluralistic society where people’s aspirations and requests are fully channeled and heard.
Some scholars compared how the US and China have acted differently on the RMB
exchange rate issue. Many think tanks in the U.S. started studying the exchange rate
issue as early as 2004. <strong>The</strong>y published columns in various media and engaged in
hearings in congress. <strong>The</strong> experts who participated in the hearings were actually
specially selected, and recordings of the hearings were widely disseminated. By
allowing public access to such hearings, the US government had its message heard by
the public. At the same time, the media presented many perspectives. Not only did
different media groups discuss the issue from different angles, even the same media
source would present different opinions. Freedom of speech was readily apparent.
Eventually, mainstream thinking emerged among a variety of voices. In contrast, China
did relatively poorly on the same issue. <strong>The</strong> perspectives of China’s experts on the RMB
exchange rate issue were actually diverse. For example, research findings of the People’s
University and that of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) differed quite a
lot. But the Chinese government required the experts not to speak “incorrectly” about
the foreign exchange rate issue, leaving only one single approved voice to be heard by
the public. While in the US, the Congress, Department of Commerce, Department of
Treasury and Trade Representative Office often emphasized different perspectives of the
same issue at different points of time, some playing the good guy, some playing the bad
guy. <strong>The</strong> single-voice strategy of the Chinese government, in fact, weakened the
effectiveness of the role that the media could have played in disseminating its message.
Even its own people did not buy what could have been a convincing argument from the
government.
Under the pressure from the US government on the exchange rate issue, the
Chinese experts have done a lot of research. It has become increasingly clear that the
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exchange rate issue cannot solve the US’ problems. <strong>The</strong> key issue is that our scholars
and experts should be given freedom to voice their views freely in the media. If China
does not let the world know the real discussion on this issue in China, it is difficult for
the rest of the world, who knows nothing about the thinking behind China’s position, to
understand China. If China blames the rest of the world for the misunderstanding, it will
give excuses for foreign media to continually demonize China, leading to a vicious
circle.
Some scholars observed that in China’s current media environment, freedom of the
press has become a sensitive issue that can’t be touched. In fact, if the academic
community is given freedom to speak up their views and different voices are allowed,
open debates will help lead us to the truth. This would also give China legitimacy in its
dialogue with foreign governments and media. China achieved remarkable economic
growth and made tremendous contribution to the world economy in the past thirty years,
but it was criticized repeatedly on issues like the RMB exchange rate. One reason for
this is that the rules of game in the political and economic world arena are dominated by
the western countries. If China’s economic and journalism scholars, think tanks, and
media want to change the rules of game and gain more say in the world, they must be
given freedom of speech so that they can have open discussions and have their messages
sent out.
Some scholars thought that the Chinese media was not successful in reporting
issues such as the exchange rate, the Sino-Japan relations, etc. <strong>The</strong> media failed to
acquire a deep understanding of these issues, nor did it provide rational guidance for
public sentiments. Its superficial, single-voice dominated coverage made it lose
credibility from its audience.
Excessive restrictions on how to voice their views in the media are imposed on
Chinese experts and scholars, making it impossible for the international community,
especially those in the US, Japan, and Europe, to understand China in an accurate and
objective way. Many American Congressmen have not even been to China. <strong>The</strong>ir
impressions of China mainly come from the western media. <strong>The</strong> Chinese media fails to
win over the international audience because Chinese experts and scholars are restricted
to share their views in the media.
Participating scholars suggested that in the current international environment, how
to give more freedom to the academic community and how to let the world to
understand China through more objective coverage of the Chinese media is a very
important issue, which should be raised as a top priority with the highest level
decision-makers. Even from a domestic perspective, a free press and the reform of the
Chinese media are also critically important. After 30 years of opening up, economic
reform cannot go any further without taking on political reform. Otherwise, further
economic development would be adversely affected. In addition, with the development
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of civil society in China, citizens also hope to have more freedom of speech and more
involvement in policy making. Under such circumstances, scholars at the discussion
called for an effective communication mechanism with the help of the media so that they
can share their observations and research results with the public and governmental
officials. As a platform for information dissemination and communication, the media
will contribute significantly to China’s social stability and future development.
Some media professionals suggested that if the media invited experts and scholars
to share their views with the public, it would help balance extreme ways of thinking in
society. <strong>Discussion</strong>s in the media need both an international and domestic perspective.
This will benefit the construction of a fair, legal society, as well as the healthy
development of the Chinese media. To be fair, a well-developed American media is not
built overnight, but a result of long-term cultivation. Moreover, there were several
historical periods when the U.S. media did a great job, such as the role it played in the
civil rights movement, which helped to establish its credibility. If the Chinese media
wants to get its audience’s attention and trust and have more opportunities to have its
message send out, it cannot have only one single voice from the government. It needs
experts and scholars to share their objective and fair perspectives with its audience.
If China wants to gain favorable public opinion of the world, it can learn lessons
from the role that American think tanks have played in setting policy agenda and
influencing public policies. If China wants to engage in public diplomacy, it needs to
influence American think tanks. American think tanks should be an important
international target audience for the Chinese media. While the American public’s view
of China mainly comes from the American media, a lot of discussions on topics of
politics, public policy, and international relations in the media involve participants from
American think tanks. However, most American authoritative figures on the China issue
are from the old generation. Jeffrey A. Bader, the former director of China Center at
Brookings Institute, is an example. He joined the National Security Council of the
Obama Administration in 2009 and became the chief advisor on Asian issues, wielding
great authority. However, he belongs to the old generation of China scholars who do not
know a lot about the present China. To China’s disadvantage, these old school China
experts dominate the China policies of the Obama administration and influence how the
American media spreads information about China. Under such circumstances, China
must create an open environment, in which experts and scholars are free to voice
different views. An open Chinese media will be more effective in influencing American
think tanks, which, in turn, will favorably affect America’s China policy and its view of
China. This will benefit China’s development in the future.
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Three Major Challenges Ahead
Participating scholars suggested that there were three major factors influencing
the development of the Chinese media: the political system, technology, and the
market. Communication resources are resources of power. While the impact of the
political system on the media is relatively stable, technology often brings about
revolutionary change for the media. Acting as a catalyst, the market often plays its
role between that of political system and technology. Under the influences of these
factors, the Chinese media will need to cope with three major challenges:
Firstly, the governance of the ruling party will have to undertake significant and
profound change. With traditional media, controlling information is an effective way of
governing for the ruling party, who can decide what to tell people and what not to tell
people. With internet technology and the emergence of online forums (e.g., online
communities, micro blogging, etc.), information is becoming more and more
symmetric. As such, the ruling party is faced with great challenge of information
control. In other words, how to adapt to this new information era, specifically, how to
select the right topics for discussion, achieve desired effects from these discussions,
and generate proper sentiments in an environment of relatively symmetrical
information, has become an important skill that the ruling party needs to learn, improve,
and master proficiently.
Secondly, the basis on which to win over people’s trust has changed. In the past, the
ruling party mainly depended on the “telling reasons” strategy to guide public opinion or
influence society. It often succeeded in convincing people and gaining their support
through reasoning. But the rise of new media has greatly changed the basis on which
people trust the government. This is also the basis on which people decide whether they
like the government and are willing to follow the government. People no longer place so
much value on the traditional reasoning method. Instead, they are increasingly under the
influence of emotion and images. How should a government influence people, convince
people, and guide people by utilizing emotion and images? So far the Chinese media is
still stuck with the old reasoning method. This reflects the relatively weak ability of the
government to influence society. Sometimes even siding with the wrong group would
trigger strong emotions in people. No matter how right the government’s position is, it
just cannot strike a chord with its people. This has posed a severe challenge to the
capability of the ruling party to govern a society. In addition, we are now in an era of
web 2.0, and a society in which everyone can speak out and appeal for his or her own
interest. This has become a part of reality in the Chinese society. In such a context, the
whole society has turned into a place for “noises of all beings”. In presiding over all
these voices, the main task of the government is therefore to balance out the expressions
of all these different interests, views, and sentiments. That is, the main job of the
government is not to control media or analyze information, but to maintain a balance
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among expressions of various interests. Similarly, the responsibility of the media is not
to speak on behalf of a certain interest group, but to play a balancing role when
imbalance exists. For the Chinese media, this is an important task to take on in the new
era.
Thirdly, the view of Herbert Marshall McLuhan is increasingly becoming a reality:
with the development of communication technologies, people are increasingly
“re-tribalized”. In theory, the more developed the media is, the easier it is for people to
communicate. However, with the rise of virtual communities on the internet, more and
more people join certain circles and groups, becoming re-tribalized. Nowadays on the
internet there are many kinds of groups, within which even those with extreme views
can find like-minded people. <strong>The</strong>y gain emotional and rhetorical support and seek
comfort from one another. Within their own group, people can talk about anything, be
it important people such as the U.S. President Obama, or trivial figures like a particular
pop star, as if they lived in a small world of their own, which they often mistake for the
real, big world itself.
<strong>The</strong> development of this kind of “circle culture” can lead to fragmentation of
society, which, in turn, will create barriers, prejudices and differences among social
groups, prone to social conflicts. <strong>The</strong>refore, the fragmentation of network society poses
a new kind of political risk. This requires the government, media or other social
institutions to provide a public platform for dialogue and communication among
different social groups, make them aware of the existence of others, set topics for
discussion, and facilitate understanding and expression. By doing this, social groups, in
case of conflict, are more likely to make compromises within the rules of game. This is
the role and function that the media should undertake in the future. <strong>The</strong> media’s
assumption of political responsibility will ultimately be essential to the well-being of the
people, social stability and steady economic development.
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China’s Understanding of Freedom of the Press
Most participating scholars agreed that China had achieved tremendous progress in
freedom of the press, although limitations still exist. We should acknowledge the
growing channels and the increasing divergence of expressions brought by a more
pluralistic society, although the quality of expressions still needs to be improved.
Nevertheless, is the free press model of those western countries, especially the U.S., the
goal that China should strive to achieve? On close examination, we will notice that two
factors help achieve a free press in the US. One is the government’s experienced skill in
managing public relations, which helps rein in the news media. In other words, it is the
government’s strong PR management capability that enables the government to grant the
news media freedom and to maintain an overall balance of public opinion. <strong>The</strong> other is
the American media’s professionalism that has developed over one hundred years.
However, the development and cultivation of a free news media in China are in a very
different situation. On one hand, the Chinese news media finds that its own voice needs
to compete with a variety of voices from a pluralistic society; on the other hand, it is
facing the challenge of potential conflicts caused by “tribalization” and “fragmentation”
of society in an internet era. Because of the differences, China may not necessarily copy
the U.S. model. Nevertheless, China needs to learn the U.S. government’s competency
in PR management and communication capability.
Some scholars also pointed out that with a free press, the U.S. media was supposed
to have complete freedom. However, the American media actually has its own bias. Take
the RMB exchange rate issue as an example. Is the appreciation of RMB good or bad for
the U.S.? Although there are different views and voices, most of the American people
believe that the appreciation of RMB is beneficial to the U.S. This public opinion is
actually a result of media guidance. This demonstrates that although there are indeed
different voices in the U.S., the dominant, mainstream one may not necessarily be the
one that completely reflects the real situation, nor does it fully present China truthfully.
In another word, even with a western free press, truthful reporting is not guaranteed.
Some participants remarked that China’s understanding of free press is different
from that of the Europe and the US. In China, it is believed that news communication
should serve economic and social development. We should understand, grasp and use
free press in the context of China’s reality. As with democracy, there is not a universal
model of a free press. Different countries with different systems and cultural traditions
can have their own models of a free press. It is advocated that different countries respect
one another’s political systems and cultural traditions, and that the public be granted
equal rights to the exchange of international information.
Some scholars voiced their views on Lee Bollinger’s new book. <strong>The</strong>y noted that
Bollinger had been known for his sharp and bold remarks. In his book, rather than
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simply focusing his criticism on other countries, he was also open to American problems.
He discussed freedom of the press in the US from both legal and historical perspectives,
existing problems, potential improvements and the economic, political and other factors
that influence the American news media today. Bollinger clearly perceived problems
associated with free press in the US. Participating scholars quite agreed with him on this,
but disagreed with his American centrism. According to Bollinger, as global information
sharing has been achieved with advance of information technologies, the block of
information flow by China in its own country would also affects American people’s right
to free press. Following this logic, he demanded a global free press based on the First
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Apparently, this argument reflects Bollinger’s
America centrism.
Some scholars shared their different understandings of Bollinger’s book. <strong>The</strong>y
noted that Bollinger did not accuse China of any wrong doing; rather, he simply thought
China had its own problems. In his view, if one country blocks free press, the distorted
media coverage would affect the whole world. That is, the lack of free press locally
means the lack of free press globally. For example, if a real China cannot be presented to
American society and the American public develops bias against China because of that,
the distorted coverage means the lack of free press globally. Who should take the blame?
Both the U.S. and China have their own faults. <strong>The</strong>refore, the most important
responsibility of the media is to accurately reflect the truth.
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Abuse of Freedom of the Press and Violation of Professional Ethics
Most scholars agreed that China’s current media reach had yet arrived at the level
one could expect in a state that is comparable to China’s economic prowess. This is
equivalent to the “cultural lag” phenomenon in sociology. If we consider the news media
a kind of cultural phenomenon, we will notice that it often lags behind economic
development. <strong>The</strong> role that the news media has played in economic development
sometimes is positive, but sometimes negative.
<strong>The</strong> Chinese news media often goes to two extremes: on one hand, it is strictly
controlled by the government in reporting major news and spreading information; while
on the other hand, as new media (like micro blogging) emerges and social interests
becomes increasingly segmented, instead of too little freedom, it enjoys too much
freedom in areas that are not controlled by the government. <strong>The</strong>re even exists the abuse
of the freedom in certain areas, which certainly compromises professional ethics. Some
media outlets, including influential ones, frequently talk nonsense to support their own
interests. Also, the regulation of advertising on TV, including on CCTV, needs to be
strengthened.
If the Chinese media cannot be improved through systematic and regulatory
measures, unregulated and chaotic information dissemination will hinder the sustainable
development of the Chinese economy. For example, two top dairy companies in China,
Mengniu and Yili, recently have used media for slanderous purposes. This is a case of
abusing freedom of the press, which could have been prevented by strict regulation and
media professionals’ self-discipline. Participating scholars called for a news media that
would follow standard codes of conduct and have a sense of responsibility in spreading
information. Another recent example involves two IT firms, Tencent and 360 Company,
which vilified each other by spreading false allegations in the media. This is unlikely to
happen in a western country, where fighting companies might have to go to the court to
solve their conflicts. <strong>The</strong> western media is unlikely to cite people’s words that were
casually uttered and over-exaggerated without checking basic facts, because they are
afraid they will be sued for slander or libel. This is not the case in China. Once these
words are published in newspapers or magazines, that is the end of the story. No one is
willing to go to court over this. <strong>The</strong>re are even more examples of abusing freedom of the
press on the internet, where some people make unsubstantiated claims and spread false
information. One of the media professionals at the discussion considered the lawsuit
between Mr. Xiao Chuanguo and Mr. Fang Zhouzi a typical tragedy, which was caused
by the abuse of freedom on the internet. <strong>The</strong> regulations in these areas need to be
strengthened.
Some scholars are confident that the Chinese media will gradually build trust of its
audience and eventually gain a say in the world. It should be noted that the advanced
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American media has developed over one hundred years. Although the U.S. media enjoys
a lot of freedom, it also has “internal rules” to avoid conflict of interest. For example,
journalists can’t accept services or gifts worth a certain amount of money or if a
journalist interviews a certain company he or she can’t buy its stock, etc. By establishing
similar rules, the Chinese media can also gradually progress to a new level.
Some scholars questioned why some Chinese media professionals appeared to lack
ethics. For example, when the journalists from national radio or national TV stations go
to local provinces to do investigative reporting, local authorities or enterprises will often
hire people to provide “hush money” in order to avoid being exposed. For another
instance, some businesses hire media people to attack their competitors by spreading
false information. <strong>The</strong> reason for the lack of ethics lies in the problems of overall social
systems. For many years, China has always regarded tight control of public opinion as a
successful way of governance. Due to strict regulation, the media and media
practitioners know very well what is subject to censorship and what is not. <strong>The</strong> media
often caters to the government by reporting leaders’ activities or the government’s
important meetings. However, in the areas that are void of government regulations, the
media tends to abuse freedom of the press for their own commercial interests. To solve
the problem, the key is how to make media organizations and media practitioners to
adhere to an “endogenous” professional code of ethics, without which they will not gain
respect in their profession. This also requires the government to strengthen not only the
regulatory role of governmental agencies, but also let professional organizations, such as
the Journalists Association, fully play their roles in self-discipline and self-education. In
today’s world where media technology has changed dramatically, we need both the
government’s overall regulation and the media’s self-generated accountability and
self-imposed ethical standards. Balanced interaction between government regulation and
self-discipline of the media must be achieved. (Edited by Long Xicheng)
Notes:
All participants of the <strong>Roundtable</strong> <strong>Discussion</strong>, except for People University Professor HU Baijing and
Caijing Magazine journalist CAI Tingyi (who did not respond to our request), reviewed the summary.
Comments from CCTV anchor, Ms. TIAN Wei, People University Professor CHEN Yue, and People
University Journalism School Dean NI Ning were incorporated into the final version. People University
Professor WANG, Lili, Professor YU Guomin, Professor LIU Yuanchun and Moderator Director Xiao did
not make any comment.
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