Sharper journalism in China invites state reprisal

IN Media Freedom | 02/10/2004

From OneWorld.Net  on Yahoo 

Suhasini 

OneWorld South Asia 

International press freedom organization Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) has urged the European Union (news - web sites) (EU) to condemn China`s latest crackdown on independent websites and publications while holding a dialogue on human rights with the EU, even as a report by media freedom group, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says 42 journalists are currently imprisoned in China, with insurance companies in the country listing journalism as the third most dangerous profession in the country. 

No announcement has been made on the outcome of the Chinese government`s 24 September meeting with the EU in the capital, Beijing, with RSF reporting that in contempt of the so-called constructive dialogue, Beijing was still shutting down outlets for free expression and arresting hundreds of Chinese people even while European representatives were present there. 

On September 23, the authorities blocked access to the Chinese version of the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia that relies on contributions from Internet-users and carries a number of articles about human rights abuses in China. The site has been blocked on several previous occasions too. 

This formed part of a series of moves to curb media freedom last month. On September 13, one of the country`s most popular discussion forums - Yi Ta Hu Tu - was shut down. Set up by a Beijing university student in September 1999, it boasted nearly 300,000 regular users. 

Significantly, the forum discussed a wide range of sensitive issues such as corruption, human rights or the independence of Taiwan. Operating purely democratically, users voted on subjects for discussion without interference by moderators, defying control by the authorities. 

RSF has called on the Chinese authorities to reopen the Yi Ta Hu Tu discussion forum, the Wikipedia site and thousands of other sites forbidden to Chinese Internet-users. 

The government also closed the diplomatic bi-monthly Zhanlue Yu Guanli (Strategy and Management) in September after it carried an article by economist Wang Zhongwen in its August issue that was critical of the North Korean regime. 

Copies of the magazine carrying the offending article were confiscated and subscribers ordered to return their copies. The magazine lost its official sponsorship recently despite the fact that its editorial board included senior political officials. 

Since June 2004, the Publicity Department (formerly Propaganda Department) has been trying to shut down Zhanlue Yu Guanli but its management succeeded in bringing it out in July and August. 

A China specialist told RSF that Zhanlue Yu Guanli, founded in 1993, was just one of some dozen Chinese publications to feature debates within the communist party`s reformist circles. The magazine`s website www.zlygl.com is still accessible but the North Korea (news - web sites) article has been deleted from it. 

RSF has urged the government to allow Zhanlue Yu Guanli to resume publishing. 

On 17 September, secret service agents arrested journalist Zhao Yan - recently hired by the New York Times Beijing bureau - while in a Shanghai restaurant after contacting him on his mobile phone. Four days later his family received a notice from the police that he had been accused of "supplying state secrets to foreigners." 

His lawyer, who was refused the right to visit him, said Zhao is being held in Beijing and could be accused of "treason" -- a charge that carries the death penalty. 

Censorship, detention, legal action, and arrests of journalists - most for revealing high-level corruption and advocating political reforms - are rampant in China. 

According to a detailed special report by CPJ, the organization has investigated attacks against more than 20 journalists since 2002, with many more cases reported in the Chinese media. The leading Zhongguo Qingnian Bao (China Youth Daily) has listed 19 cases of journalists being beaten in 2003 alone. 

The report adds some insurance companies in China now list journalism as the third most dangerous career in the country, after the police and coal mining. 

A former editor of a newspaper with a powerful media group called the Southern Daily Group, told CPJ the increase in attacks on journalists could be attributed to "the awakening of journalists` consciences." As he puts it, "They tend now to put more effort on muckraking reports, revealing illegal trades, commodities counterfeiting, dishonest entrepreneurs, and cronyism between businessmen and local officials, which offend both businessmen and officials, provoking assaults and violent attacks." 

Journalists say hired thugs are responsible for many of the attacks. Says Tony Huang, a photojournalist working for a tabloid in the crime-ridden city of Guangzhou, "Plenty of people can be hired for 50 yuan (US $6) to beat someone up. So who can the police arrest? They just run away and disappear." Like many other reporters, Huang has been admitted to hospital several times. "At least every month, I hear of a journalist who is attacked," he says. 

The report says in February 2004, Sina.com, one of China`s largest web portals, published photographs of three journalists being beaten while reporting on the set of a movie in Yunnan Province. More than ten workers on the movie set attacked them and threw them into a river. The provocation? They reported on local villagers` complaints about their maltreatment by the film company. 

Investigative reporter Wang Keqin has earned a reputation as "China`s most expensive reporter" because of the price that has been put on his head as a result of his writings. In 2002, he conducted a large-scale investigation into corruption within the securities market in Lanzhou, the capital of the northwestern Gansu Province. His reports led to the government shutting down more than 400 illegal firms in 26 provinces.

After the reports were published, Wang received several death threats, and one businessman implicated in the reports offered 5 million yuan (US $600,000) for his head. 

Interestingly, CPJ says some local legislators have taken steps to ensure legal protection for journalists. Last year, the Yining County government in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region implemented "Regulations on Not Refusing Interviews by Journalists," which states that "no department or work unit may...abuse or harass journalists or confiscate or destroy their reporting equipment." 

CPJ says the All-China Journalists Association (ACJA) is the only national organization dedicated to protecting journalists` rights. But being a government institution, it is virtually powerless. In the mid-1980s, journalists launched a movement to get a media law passed that would lay down legal protections for a free press. But after the military crackdown on the 1989 democracy movement, such legislation was sidelined.