Tying to Commit Journalism in China
China Media Research, 3(1), 2007, Watts, Tying to Commit Journalism in China Tying to Commit Journalism in China Jonathan Watts The Guardian East Asia Correspondent Abstract: A first person account of reporting on China in the run up to the Beijing Olympics by a foreign correspondent for the UK based Guardian media group. Drawing on several high profile stories, the article describes the risks, challenges and rewards involved in newsgathering. The author discusses the changing regulatory environment, relations between central and local governments, the growing importance of the Internet, the domestic media and problems related to language and culture. Part of this is done through comparison with coverage of Japan, where the author was previously based. The paper offers suggestions for smoother coverage and attempts to convey the excitement of reporting on a country during a period of immense change. [China Media Research. 2007; 3 (1):65-72]. Keywords: foreign correspondent, Olympics, Guardian, regulations, detentions, Internet, blogs I confess. I have attempted to commit journalism in There is nothing unusual about this. In China, such violation of the Chinese government's rules and treatment and the paranoia that comes with it are regulations. I understand that the authorities would not considered part of the territory. There are other cultural, like me to report what I have seen and heard today to linguistic and ideological issues that affect coverage, the outside world.’ This is a fairly typical extract from a but I believe the government's controls on foreign correspondent's self-criticism - the usually hand- journalists have had one of the biggest and most scrawled, semantically convoluted and anything but negative impacts on the overseas image of the country.
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