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Press freedom in China has relatively loosened in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake in Sichuan, but the government is still heavy handed in directing the coverage.

Taking advantage of their unprecedented access, journalists have been generating a continous stream of updates from the disaster site, using a variety of tools including Twitter (see image). Citizen journalists as well have been active generating news from the province.

"I think we can say right now that Chinese media is reporting the quake with an intensity previously unseen," said David Bandurski, a researcher at the University of Hong Kong's China Media Project.

The openness is particularly striking when compared to the non-coverage of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, when China's press gave a short announcement that it had occurred and then fell silent.

However, according to AFP, China's journalists are by no means free from government interference. China's top propaganda director, Li Changchun, recently visited the major state-run media outlets "to deliver what appeared to be a stern reminder of the angles the press must take."

"The leadership's more open attitude toward reporting on the disaster so far is a very positive development. But it does not necessarily signal an epic shift in media policy," Bandurski said. Indeed, press repression in China has generally grown worse in the lead up to the Olympics.

Unlike Chinese journalists, foreign journalists have not reported any attempts to curb their coverage, representing what may be attempt to show a degree of openness in light of the Tibet protests.  

Sources: AFP, E-Media Tidbits 

"Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom"  is a conference organized by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and a coalition of leading press freedom groups, held on April 18-19 in Maison de la Chimie in Paris to raise the consciousness of the journalistic community, especially sports journalists, to the press freedom conditions they should expect to encounter in China.

A Chinese journalist jailed for her reporting told the conference today that press freedom and human rights have worsened in China and that conditions for journalists in the run-up to the Olympics are "considerably more catastrophic" than they were when she was arrested 15
years ago.

"Freedom of the press and human rights constitute the most serious problem currently facing China," said Gao Yu, who was arrested in 1993 and sentenced to six years in prison for sending two articles on current affairs to a Hong Kong review. She was charged with "divulging state secrets", a catch-all charge often used by Chinese authorities to stifle independent reporting and dissent.

Her arrest came weeks after China's failed bid to host the 2000 Olympics. It was her second jail term; she had previously served a 15-month sentence in 1989 for her coverage of the Beijing democracy movement.

She compared her case to that of Hu Jia, a human rights campaigner and citizen journalist who was sentenced to three years in prison earlier this month. "As the Olympic Games approach, this case demonstrates in a terribly emblematic fashion the position of the Communist Party in confrontation with freedom of expression," she said. "It also shows the riposte of the Chinese authorities to the demands of the international community."

Despite promises of reform made ahead of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese authorities have not only failed to respect them, but they have intensified their crackdown on journalists and others who seek to exercise their right to freedom of expression. Foreign journalists now reporting from China in the run up to the Olympics are regularly harassed and even expelled, as was the case during the March 2008 events in Tibet. This violates the Organising Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games pledge that foreign media would have "complete freedom to report when they come to China".

Ms Gao, the 1995 laureate of the WAN Golden Pen of Freedom and the first laureate, in 1997, of UNESCO's World Press Freedom Prize, said:  "At the approach of the Olympic Games, all Chinese who have suffered oppression hope to be able to utilise the occasion to seek justice; the international community hopes that the Chinese government will improve the situation of the press and human rights in line with the promise made in 2001.

"But the Chinese authorities see these internal and external pressures as 'politisation of the Olympic Games. Unhappily, counterattacking against these criticisms by repressing the freedom of the press only underlines this contradiction."

"The experience of China and the Olympics is, in fact, yet one more example of the terrible naivety and short-sightedness of those in leadership of our governments, our sports organisations and our businesses as they deal with repressive regimes like the one in place in Beijing," said Timothy Balding, CEO of WAN, who opened the session featuring Ms Gao.

"History, if nothing else, amply demonstrates that dictators do not voluntarily and spontaneously give up power, do not loosen the chains, do not remove the gags, after sudden illumination and conversion to belief in freedom and other human rights. They do so when they are forced to, generally through a combination of intense internal opposition and dissent," he said.

The full program can be found at here.

For more information on WAN's international campaign, in the run-up to the Olympics, to hold China to the promises it made in its successful Olympic bid to improve the press freedom and human rights conditions in the country, please go here.

Source: WAN

What press freedom conditions can journalists and sports writers expect when they go to China to cover the 2008 Summer Olympics? An international conference designed to answer their questions, and to examine the methods that China uses to control the press, will be held in Paris next month.

The conference, on 18 and 19 April next, will provide expert insight on the press freedom conditions that journalists - particularly sports journalists - will encounter in China.

A session on how China deals with foreign news media will feature Yuwen Wu, News Editor of the BBC China Service, Joceyln Ford, Chair of the Media Freedoms Committee at the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, and Fan Ho Tsai, Chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association.

Other sessions will examine press freedom and the Beijing Olympics, how the Chinese news media is controlled, what reporting conditions can be expected for the Olympics, the risks, opportunities and responsibilities involved with trading with China, and the limits and the freedoms surrounding China's internet.

The conference  is organised by a coalition of press freedom groups including the World Association of Newspapers, the World Press Freedom Committee, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights in China and Asia Presse.

On July 1, blognation launched in the UK and became the first portal in an ambitious project to cover developments in Web 2.0 on a global scale.

The imprisoned Chinese journalist Shi Tao, winner of the 2007 Golden Pen of Freedom Award, has joined in the lawsuit against Yahoo, Inc. According to his mother Gao Qingsheng, Shi is claiming that the Sunnyville, Calif., Internet company’s release of information to Chinese government officials led to his arrest and subsequent ten-year prison sentence in 2005.

Chinese Internet search leader Baidu has just won the approval to become an online news portal, giving it both huge market potential and competitiveness against Google.

Another personnel reshuffle has taken place in Zhongguo Qingnian Bao, a daily directly under the Communist Youth League [CYL] Central Committee. Chief Editor Li Erliang has been transferred and the vacancy has been filled by Deputy Editor Chen Xiaochuan. Reportedly, the removal of Li Erliang from office is directly related to the Bingdian incident earlier this year.

The transfer is seen as an attempt by the authorities to "put an end" to the incident that evoked the "serious concern" of the media overseas. It has been reported that the authorities are disappointed by the "trouble" caused by Li Erliang and his failure to properly handle the incident.

Yahoo has yet again been accused of helping put a Chinese Internet user in prison. The company has turned over an e-mail draft from one of its users to Chinese authorities, which is using the information to jail the man on subversion charges.

Pelle Tornberg, CEO of the Sweden-based Metro International, recently sat down with the Guardian to discuss the success of the freesheet, plans for expansion and the effects on paid-for newspapers.

Chinese officials have retracted plans to allow local newspapers to print foreign papers on a contract basis. The decision is a response to fears that the influence of the foreign media may cause revolts similar to the 'colour revolutions' responsible for collapse of other authoritarian regimes, such as those in Georgia and the Ukraine, to occur in China.

Yesterday, as the Wall Street Journal's European and Asian edition relaunched in a new design and a compact format, the two editions also started partnerships with major Asian and European newspapers. A new section, called "Across Europe" and "Across Asia" respectively, features content from each five major newspapers in the area, reports Media Week. The sections appear on the European and Asian home page of the Wall Street Journal and are a further attempt to integrate the print and online versions of the paper.

The South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's leading English language paper, reports the story of Chen Feng, a Chinese investigative journalist. In 2003, when he was working for the Southern Metropolis Daily, Chen investigated the story of 27-year-old Sun Zhigang, who had been arrested for not carrying his tempory-residence permit and was beaten to death in police custody in a prison in Guangzhou. The paper's editor gave Chen and his colleague Wang Lei one month to investigate the story. The two journalists found the family of Sun and convinced them of demanding an autopsy.

South China Morning Post states, "They (the journalists) marshalled all the facts and printed the story before authorities got wind of the investigation, so they could not order the topic off-limits. The article caused shockwaves across the country. Follow-up reports exposed a network of custody-of-repatriation camps that bought and sold prisoners like slaves. The unprecedented swell of public outrage forced Beijing to close all the camps and abolish the draconian law that gave police the authority to jail people at will."

The South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's leading English language paper, reports the story of Chen Feng, a Chinese investigative journalist. In 2003, when he was working for the Southern Metropolis Daily, Chen investigated the story of 27-year-old Sun Zhigang, who had been arrested for not carrying his tempory-residence permit and was beaten to death in police custody in a prison in Guangzhou. The paper's editor gave Chen and his colleague Wang Lei one month to investigate the story. The two journalists found the family of Sun and convinced them of demanding an autopsy.

South China Morning Post states, "They (the journalists) marshalled all the facts and printed the story before authorities got wind of the investigation, so they could not order the topic off-limits. The article caused shockwaves across the country. Follow-up reports exposed a network of custody-of-repatriation camps that bought and sold prisoners like slaves. The unprecedented swell of public outrage forced Beijing to close all the camps and abolish the draconian law that gave police the authority to jail people at will."

The text of the verdict in the case of journalist Shi Tao - sentenced in April to 10 years in prison for "divulging state secrets abroad" - shows that Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. provided China's state security authorities with details that helped to identify and convict him, Reporters Without Borders said.

... "Yahoo! obviously complied with requests from the Chinese authorities to furnish information regarding an IP address that linked Shi Tao to materials posted online, and the company will yet again simply state that they just conform to the laws of the countries in which they operate," the organisation said. "But does the fact that this corporation operates under Chinese law free it from all ethical considerations? How far will it go to please Beijing?"

Reporters Without Borders added: "Information supplied by Yahoo! led to the conviction of a good journalist who has paid dearly for trying to get the news out. It is one thing to turn a blind eye to the Chinese government's abuses and it is quite another thing to collaborate."

Translated into English by the Dui Hua Foundation (which works to document the cases of Chinese political prisoners), the verdict reveals that Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. provided the Chinese investigating organs with detailed information that apparently enabled them to link Shi's personal e-mail account and the specific message containing information treated as a "state secret" to the IP address of his computer.

In the beginning of August China announced rules to tighten its control on foreign media (see previous posting). As the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reports, at the same time the Beijing National Security Bureau announced the prosecution of dissident journalist Ching Cheong. The veteran Hong Kong journalist, who has written on China for over 20 years and who has many contacts among prominent academics and government officials in China, is accused of spying for Taiwan and was arrested in April. According to IFJ he is facing death penalty if charges are proved. IFJ suggests that his arrest "may be intended to send a message to the media about the limits placed on press freedom by the Communist leadership."

The message is especially important to Hong Kong journalists. According to Asia Media, an academic warned on Saturday that they "must learn to understand the mainland's rules on operating across the border." Cheong`s arrest shows that the Chinese central authorities do not have a clear distinction between intelligence and news information nor between the role of a reporter and the role of a spy, argues Ong Yew-kim, researcher at the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Chinese University, on Asia Media. He goes on saying that "China is only a partially open country; there's no freedom of the press, many people are persecuted." Similarly, Johnny Lau Yui-siu, a political analyst cited on Asia Media said that China and Hong Kong have very different definitions of news-gathering which leads journalists often into grey areas: "The central authorities' openness is only limited to the economic level," he said.

Sources: Asia Media, IFJ, previous posting

Last week the General Administration of Press and Publication of China published the "China National Press Industrial Development Report for Year 2005", a press industrial research report, for the first time.

According to this official report China printed 100 million copies of various kinds of daily newspaper every day in 2004 and is therefore ranking first in the world. As Renmin Ribao, a Chinese newspaper, reports "the number of daily newspapers China published in 2004 made up 14.5 per cent of the total in the world".