Radio Silence
A look at efforts to increase access to media in the developing world
World Association of Newspapers campaigns for extended media freedom in post-Olympics China
The World Association of Newspapers has launched a
campaign to maintain the relaxed media
regulations, set to expire October 17th, gained in China as a
result of this summer's Olympics:
Way back in 2002 when China was bidding for the Olympics, it promised it
would relax reporting restrictions for foreign journalists. Sure enough,
effective 1 January 2007, China introduced new rules that allowed foreign
reporters greater freedom to travel the country and to interview anyone who
was willing to be questioned. Even though they were widely disregarded by
the authorities, limited improvements to China's media freedom record
resulted.
Sadly, even these regulations are set to expire next week.
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) is calling for the new rules to
continue - and for them to be extended to include both foreign and Chinese
journalists. They are also calling for the rules to be enforced, "which was
not always the case before and during the Olympics."
According to WAN, the Foreign Correspondents' Association of China documented at least 336 cases of media interference since the relaxed regulations were put in place.
"Now that the Games are over, and the world's attention is elsewhere, it is
more important than ever to draw attention to the complete lack of press
freedom in the world's most populous country, which continues to jail more
journalists than any other," said Timothy Balding, CEO of WAN
WAN is asking media outlets around the world to publish advertisements the organization has designed that demand China honour their Olympic pledges. Those ads are available at the 'campaign' link above.
(See discussion on our site here of Olympics-related media freedoms in China here, here and, touching on life outside Beijing during the Olympics here.)
Way back in 2002 when China was bidding for the Olympics, it promised it
would relax reporting restrictions for foreign journalists. Sure enough,
effective 1 January 2007, China introduced new rules that allowed foreign
reporters greater freedom to travel the country and to interview anyone who
was willing to be questioned. Even though they were widely disregarded by
the authorities, limited improvements to China's media freedom record
resulted.
Sadly, even these regulations are set to expire next week.
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) is calling for the new rules to
continue - and for them to be extended to include both foreign and Chinese
journalists. They are also calling for the rules to be enforced, "which was
not always the case before and during the Olympics."
According to WAN, the Foreign Correspondents' Association of China documented at least 336 cases of media interference since the relaxed regulations were put in place.
"Now that the Games are over, and the world's attention is elsewhere, it is
more important than ever to draw attention to the complete lack of press
freedom in the world's most populous country, which continues to jail more
journalists than any other," said Timothy Balding, CEO of WAN
WAN is asking media outlets around the world to publish advertisements the organization has designed that demand China honour their Olympic pledges. Those ads are available at the 'campaign' link above.
(See discussion on our site here of Olympics-related media freedoms in China here, here and, touching on life outside Beijing during the Olympics here.)
About
Until recently, Christopher was working as a reporter and mentor at the Daily Monitor newspaper in Uganda, where he got an on-the-ground look at the role the media plays in development efforts. Prior to that, Christopher covered Canada for the New York Times. He now covers Canada for the UK's Financial Times newspaper.
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1 Comment
Bob Jennings
Just like the increased (albeit draconian) environmental regulations, it would have been extremely naive for anyone to think that China would go back to anything but business-as-usual after the Games. As the entire event amounted to one huge world endorsement of the communist party's regime, it didn't really create the need make anything but the most superficial, temporary changes.