Getting Chummy with the Foreign Media

“We will facilitate foreign media coverage of China in accordance with the law.”

C President Hu Jintao, during his speech at the World Media Summit, October 9, 2009

BEIJING saw the opening of a two-day World Media Summit last October, hosted by Xinhua News Agency and jointly initiated by News Corporation, Associated Press, Reuters, ITAR-TASS, Kyodo News, BBC, Turner Broadcasting System and Google. Participants representing some 170 news agencies, radio, television, newspaper, magazine and online media came from over 70 countries and regions.

With the themes of Cooperation, Action, Win-Win and Development, the first-ever media summit discussed the status quo of modern scribing and the developing trends and challenges they are facing. It concluded with a World Media Summit Joint Statement, essentially a consensus on responding to challenges, promoting cooperation and achieving fair and balanced coverage.

The attitude the Chinese government bears to foreign media has changed obviously in the past couple of years. Before 2007, overseas media was expected to act in conformity with the Regulations Concerning Foreign Journalists and Permanent Offices of Foreign News Agencies issued back in 1990. Overseas media was required to apply to related offices in charge of foreign affairs before coming to the mainland to conduct interviews.

To facilitate the hosting of foreign journalists flocking in for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists during the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period were put into effect on January 1, 2007. According to this set of regulations, foreign media could interview whomever they wished by simply getting the permission of interviewees. However, emergency events that took place a few months prior to the Olympics changed the stance of the government rather than its regulations. On March 14, 2008, a riot broke out in Tibet and a news blackout was imposed which kept foreign journalists out of the region until 12 days later. This measure was widely criticized domestically and abroad, and the Chinese reports on this event were questioned in some foreign media.

Lessons must be learned. When a deadly earthquake hit Sichuan two months later, foreign journalists were approved from the very first moment to conduct interviews in disaster-stricken areas. The conveniences foreign media temporarily enjoyed during the Olympic Games were written into the Regulations Concerning Foreign Journalists and Permanent Offices of Foreign News Agencies, which permanently superceded the previous regulations on October 17, 2008. The latest regulations allow foreign journalists to go anywhere in China for any interview that interests them.

When riots broke out in Xinjiang on July 5, 2009, the Chinese government facilitated foreign journalists to go to the scene on the following day. And during the celebration of the PRC’s 60th anniversary, a news center was established to provide professional services to media organizations. Foreign media’s needs were considered when making up the schedule.

Taipei-based China Times commented in the article “China Looking for a Louder Voice”: “China initiated the summit because, as a big emerging country, it requires a voice that carries as far as its economic power. On several occasions when the country’s core interests were at stake, the government’s position and vital facts failed to be reflected by international mainstream coverage.”

The French newspaper Nouvelles D’Europe celebrated that the rally of media magnets at the summit made the event a media Olympics and a wonderful opportunity for exchange. As for the efforts the Chinese government has made in the interests of information transparency, David Schlesinger, Editor-in-Chief of Reuters, believes China’s rapid progress is worthy of praise. Peter Tichauer, editor-in-chief of China Contact in Germany, said every department of the Chinese central government has introduced a press spokesperson, and shows greater willingness to help foreign media in their work in China.

There seems to be every reason for optimism with respect to the domestic media industry. Rupert Murdoch is certain about China’s media industry, which, he believes, has the very best prospects for expanding both international influence and profit.