All Eyes on China: The IMC 2010 concludes with 1+1=1, Micro-Blogs and Libel Tourism
“Undoubtedly, Chinese media is controlled. Undoubtedly Chinese media is changing. Please note that today’s media changes are also under control. Now coming back to the first point—today’s control is also changing.”
That was the view of Qian Gang, Director of the China Media Project at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at The University of Hong Kong.
Qian’s wry humor concluded an editorial roundtable on the final day of the IMC, titled “Reporting New Realities in Asia and the Pacific.”
Wednesday’s lineup included a panel discussion of Taiwan cross-strait relations, a speech by Fan Yijin (former publisher of the Southern Media Group), a roundtable of top Chinese editors and a brief talk on regional media cooperation.
Mainland-Taiwan Diplomacy
Two China policy experts from across the Taiwan Strait reunited on stage with a former “unofficial” US representative to Taiwan.
Dr Chu Shulong and Dr Alexander Huang Chieh-Cheng studied together at George Washington University in the early 1990s. Chu is now a professor of public policy at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Huang is an associate at the Centre for International and Strategic Studies in Taipei. Ray Burghardt, Director of East-West Centre Seminars, moderated the panel.
Huang used mathematics to explain Taiwan’s changing attitude toward the mainland.
During Chen Shui-bian’s presidency, Huang said the Democratic Progressive Party leadership understood China relations to be “1+1=2”. Now, with the Kuomintang and President Ma Ying-jeou at the helm, Huang said the policy equation is more like “1 + 1 = 1”.
Burghardt defended American weapons sales to Taiwan. Chu also addressed the issue. Chu said the problem is not Taiwanese military purchases; he laid blame on foreign nations making any arms sales.
Panelists expressed optimism for cross-strait relations despite the controversy.
Fan Yijin
Fan began his journalism career the height of the Cultural Revolution. When he became a reporter in 1970, Southern Daily was Guangdong’s only paper. The Communist Party permitted only one newspaper per province at the time.
“Only one thinking was allowed,” he said. “All of the newspapers in China were speaking with the same voice, the same voice of propaganda.”
When Fan retired as publisher of the Southern Media Group in 2006, he left a company that published more than a dozen titles, including Southern Weekend, Southern Metropolitan Daily and 21st Century Business Herald.
During the past 40 years, Fan witnessed a “blooming” of newspapers, and he said Chinese media has become a much stronger facilitator of public opinion.
He cited media “marketization” and new media as two reasons for an “unstoppable” opening of the Chinese press.
“Even if the traditional media won’t report, the new media will,” he said. “And even if Chinese media won’t report, the foreign media will. So, the news will be imported.”
During the Q&A that followed his speech, Fan was asked about media law reform in China. He said he did not pin much hope on media law ref.
“At the moment, we don’t have a media law, and I have not heard if it’s being considered. At the beginning of the opening period (under Deng Xiaoping) there was some discussion about the institution of media law, but that failed. At the moment there are some academics discussing this; however, I don’t think that the government has taken any action on media law. “
Editors Roundtable
Professor Ying Chan, Director of the JMSC, led a panel of Chinese editors discussing a variety of topics:
• Shanghai Expo: Hu Zhanfen, editor of Xinmin Weekly said Shanghai’s historically strict media control remains in place in the lead up to the Shanghai Expo. Local papers are forbidden, for example, to write about old buildings destroyed to make way for the Expo.
• Health reporting: Dr An Ran, former Nieman Fellow and senior science editor at China Newsweek said that health reporting is a thriving beat on the mainland. Chinese health reporters are overwhelmingly young, he said, and they would benefit from more education and experience. He expects the beat to continue gaining prominence with China’s rapidly aging society.
• Micro-blogging: Two of the panelists elaborated on the growing importance of micro-blogging in China. Xiong Peiyun, a professor at Nankai University and a prominent blogger said, “the mini-bloggers probably don’t have an overall plan, but they are changing the society bit by bit.”
Deng Zhixin, editor of Southern Metropolis Daily said micro-blogs are now an integral part of his daily newsgathering.
“Everyday when I go into the office, the first thing I do is to check my emails and to open the mini-blogs to check for news,” he said.
Deng said he uses two micro-blogging resources: Twitter and mini-blogs on Twitter and QQ. Twitter is blocked in the mainland, but he accesses the site via proxy server.
But public officials also use micro-blogging to counteract potential distortion in traditional media. Similarly, he said journalists are turning to micro-blogs as a platform for avoiding censorship in official print publications.
Regional media cooperation
During the luncheon, two editors touched on cross-border newspaper cooperation.
Reg Chua, editor of the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, said editors should begin a candid consideration about sharing mutually relevant content.
“We all have audiences that differ, how can we write something that is relevant across our reader demographics?” Chua said.
The publisher and editor of the Nepali Times further elaborated on the topic. Kunda Dixit said the damming of Tibet’s Yarlung Zangbo River presents an ideal story for cross-border collaboration.
He also warned that libel tourism is making chilling headway in the industry. Libel tourism occurs when plaintiffs seek foreign judicial environments with strict libel laws for maximum monetary return. Dixit said he suffered personally from libel tourism.
“As our content goes more and more international, we will become more and more victim to libel tourism as a restraint to press freedom in the region,” Dixit said.
—Doug Meigs
