Olympics 2008: How to Treat Western Journalists Who Break the Law
[The Toronto Star, Canada]
The Global Geographic Times,
People's Republic of China
Olympics 2008: How
to Treat Western Journalists Who 'Break the Law'
With the Olympic Games just a few
months away, what will Beijing do with all of those pesky Western journalists
running around the country flouting the regime's restrictions on a free press?
If this article from China's state-controlled Global Geographic Times is
anything to go by, the 2008 Olympic Games are likely to result in the mass
jailing and expulsion of a majority of Western-trained journalists there.
In 2007, China promulgated and
implemented rules for news gathering during the period surrounding the Olympic
Games, amending previous news regulations. Foreign journalists in China can
freely engage in news gathering activities and conduct interviews. This gives
the foreign media in China more freedom to operate. But as we have seen
recently, a few Western media outlets and journalists harbor evil designs, and
their reports on China are deeply prejudiced. In addition to this, the way some
Western media outlets operate has raised more than a few questions.
The traditional Chinese
notion of news dissemination proceeds from the principle that "people are
good." With a beneficent attitude, we reveal to the world the
accomplishments of Chinese society while presenting the Chinese people with
current events taking place in all of the world’s countries. The Western news
broadcast strategy, however, is quite different - they always emphasize the
unique, sensational and adversarial aspects of news events.So their news broadcasts are loud, raucous,
and overbearing.
A typical example of this is
the press conference. Chinese reporters at a press conference proceed strictly
by the book; they neither want to or at good at raising questions in a way that
reflects their own political views. But Western journalists turn press
conferences into battlefields - an ideological contest. Some Chinese-conducted
meetings have been seen by a minority of Western journalists as places to stage
political performances. They take every opportunity to pose questions that
express their own political views and never miss a chance to spread their own
prejudices, even going so far as to call the Chinese people’s love for their
country "nationalism," and charging that the spontaneous patriotic
displays of Chinese young people are controlled behind the scenes by the
Chinese government. In some cases, Western media outlets have used news topics
as "traps" that are virtually impossible for our officials to guard
against.
In the process of
interviewing people about specific news events, Western media use a very
suspicious tone while asking questions, which pushes the interviewee into a
corner. Seen in the East as bordering on rude and unreasonable, this is
behavior that precisely reflects the Western style of news reporting. Although
in many cases this makes people uncomfortable and appears designed to stir up
trouble, it is this proactive "attack-style" attitude toward news
gathering that allows them to gain the upper hand.
Therefore, because of the
Western media’s frequent irresponsibility and even distortion of the facts, we
should by no means continue with the "people are good" principle. Not
long ago in Lhasa, after the "March 14 incident" which included
beating, smashing, looting and vandalism, biased reporting by a few Western
journalists caused serious damage to China’s image. Some view the Western
media’s "performance" during the riots in Lhasa as a kind of
historical "prejudice": others see the rudeness and slander of
Chinese citizens by a few Western journalists as an expression of their own
fear of China’s rise. But from a fellow journalist's point of view, the actions
of this small number of Western reporters and media organizations not only
violate the ethics of professional journalism, they are actually illegal.
FRENCH COVERAGE: IN SPITE OF
TRAGEDY,
OLYMPIC TRAINING CONTINUES IN
CHINA …
The reason that they dare spread such
nonsense about Chinese issues is that they don’t have to pay a price for it. In
this way, they both satisfy the needs of a few influential anti-Chinese
elements and attract public attention, thereby enhancing their own reputations.
Therefore, the best way of putting a stop to the impunity of Western
journalists in regard to Chinese issues is to force them to bear legal and
social responsibility for their actions. If we don’t take strict measures to
resolutely crack down on this small number of Western media outlets and
journalists, they will continue to pretend that they understand Chinese
affairs, repeat gossip, and even willfully provoke trouble, all to the
detriment of China.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Some foreign news agencies
and reporters seem to hold a distorted view which is misleading to the public.
They claim that other countries don't control the news. But in fact, many
developed countries have enacted relevant legal regimes. These regimes on the
one hand protect news agencies and their employees, and on the other, they
prevent these agencies from damaging the national interest, the public interest
and the legitimate interests of citizens. For example in some Western
countries, the law stipulates that if a journalist or scholar publishes an
article protesting the innocence of the Nazis, then they should be held
criminally liable.
Within the international
community today, vilifying China is in vogue and fabricating lies about China
has become the common practice of certain Western media outlets. We must change
our strategy and adopt a more proactive attitude and put into effect legal
measures to defend China’s national and societal interests and protect the
fundamental rights of the people. Since Western journalists have long been
accustomed to living in a society governed by the "rule of law," they
ought to understand what it means to obey the law.
Therefore, this reporter
suggests that if a few Western journalists knowingly violate the law, incite
the breakup of China, encourage the actions of terrorist elements, maliciously
invent news stories or spread gossip to confuse the public, they should receive
the most sever punishment allowed by law. Only in this way can we change from
passive to active; only in this way can we alter the fixed attitude toward
China so prevalent in the Western news reports.
*QiaoXinsheng is President of the Legal Research
Dissemination Board of Hubei Province
[Editor's Note: Reporters Without Borders rates China's media as "Situation Very
Serious "].
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