PRESS FREEDOM | Informing citizens, ensuring accountability
20 May 2008
China’s Government Praised for Easing Media Restrictions
Observers hope freedoms will continue in wake of earthquake coverage
Washington -- As China copes with the aftermath of the massive May 12 earthquake that devastated Sichuan province, its government has been earning international praise for allowing unfettered press coverage of the tragedy.
South Korea’s ROK Daily reported May 16 that the coverage within China is “a world away” from previous government attempts to minimize negative news. “TV footages have shown the flattened towns and distressful scenes of affected areas,” it said.
Foreign journalists have reported being waved through security checkpoints to get to affected areas and being given statistics, handouts and interview opportunities with Chinese government officials.
Japan’s Tokyo Sankei Shimbun said May 17 that the lack of censorship by the Chinese government was “unprecedented,” with the broadcast of uncensored live images and news reports. Major news outlets, including the state-run Xinhua News Agency, were competing with each other over the coverage, and as a result the quality of reporting improved.
“Xinhua provided the most reliable information, and that led to the public's interest in the disaster and led to unprecedented relief,” the article said. “Until now, the people were losing trust in the party and the state-run propaganda media, but perhaps this will provide an opportunity to redefine the way the press ought to be.”
U.S. daily newspaper the Los Angeles Times argued May 17 that the more permissive government attitude toward reporters, as well as its admission of foreign rescue experts and sympathetic visits to Sichuan by Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao “has revealed a nation in the throes of political change.”
China's usual reaction to any hint of trouble, such as the 2003 SARS epidemic, “was to cordon off the affected area and squelch alternative views,” the Times said, adding there was an initial “fleeting effort” by the Chinese government to control news coverage of the disaster when it ordered Chinese news outlets not to send reporters to affected areas and to take their material only from official outlets like the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
“But the order was ignored, causing the government to loosen its expectations,” the Times reported, adding a Chinese reporter’s comment that the earthquake “is such a big event that none of us would give up the opportunity to cover it."
A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME?
The question on many observers’ minds is whether this is a one-time loosening of restrictions or if it marks a significant precedent in the Chinese government’s relations with the media.
“Clearly it is in the government’s interest to show the scale of the disaster and to show just how hard it is working to rescue the survivors,” said China expert Alexandra Harney, who spoke from China to National Public Radio’s Morning Edition on May 16.
Many Chinese are tuning in to television and radio coverage, and they have been motivated to help as they can on an individual level, Harney said, including doctors who have mobilized across the country to volunteer in Sichuan. “I hope at least that the government sees this as a success and in the future they will be more open and realize that that’s in their benefit,” she said.
Although there already has been some online criticism of the government by Chinese bloggers, mainly over questions on why many schools collapsed while government buildings remained, most of the media has stayed away from those types of stories so far. One blogger told Hanley that he felt different rules apply during a natural disaster.
In a certain sense the Sichuan earthquake “is kind of China’s 9/11,” she said, referring to the 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
The September 11 attacks on the United States created a temporary solidarity among Americans, including many in the news media, and U.S. authorities received largely positive coverage and support in the days following the tragedy.
“The country is so saddened by the scale of the tragedy and Chinese journalists tell me that it’s really too early to start criticizing things like building standards or corruption,” Hanley said.
