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Notable changes in media coverage in China

BEIJING: The biggest media village in Olympic Games history officially opened in northern Beijing on Friday.

“Despite the differences of colours, languages and nationalities between us, we share the fascination and joy of the Olympic Games with each other,” said Zhao Jinfang, who is supervising the North Star which together with Huiyuan comprises the two residential compounds of the village.

The Village opened for 21,600 domestic and foreign registered reporters, amid some foreign media’s concerns about free reporting in China.

Friday’s People’s Daily ran a commentary appealing to the administration and common people to “befriend the media”.

“To serve the media is to serve the Olympic Games,” said the article. “To befriend the media is to befriend the audience.”

About 30,000 reporters are expected to cover the Games, the largest in Olympic history, which means the number in the audience could be the highest ever too.

Early this month, Vice-President Xi Jinping included serving the media well in the top eight tasks of the last-minute preparations for the Games.

Though worries about free news reporting are lingering, covering news in China has undergone notable changes.

A regulation on reporting activities by foreign media during the Games has, since January last year, lifted several rules. They no longer need approval from the local government but only agreement from the people or organisations to be interviewed.

Local authorities are urged to cooperate with media even when the interview involves sensitive topics such as environmental protection, AIDS and housing displacement.

“We could regard the Olympics as a chance to push the country to open to global media,” said Ren Zhanjiang, dean of the Department of Journalism and Communication, China Youth University for Political Sciences.

Some changes will continue after the Games. In April last year, the government issued a regulation asking administrations to publicise information that the public should learn about.

The law on emergency responses, adopted in August 2007, cancelled an item in its draft that banned media from reporting emergencies without permission from the authority.

It was implemented when the devastating May 12 earthquake jolted southwest China. The first news about the earthquake came minutes after tremors were felt while the death toll, which used to be a taboo in disaster news reporting, was announced and updated daily until now. A day later foreign correspondents were reporting news on the quake, and continued to do so.

The country faced criticism for not allowing any foreign media to enter Tibet immediately after the Lhasa violence on March 14, though reporters already there were allowed to continue to report until their permits ran out. Chinese news stories were publicised straight after the incident happened in the Tibetan city, including TV footage about violent attacks on the street.

This surprised Chinese audiences who have become used to a diet of positive news. — Xinhua

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