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 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. penitent letters that foreign journalists are sometimes My experience of one detention per year is not at all obliged to write in return for their freedom if they are untypical. A survey (see appendix 1 below) released caught conducting unauthorised interviews or visits. I last August by the Foreign Correspondents' Club 4 of was obliged to sign my most recent self-criticism in China found 72 cases of harassment since 2004 - the March 2006 after I was detained by police in Yunfu, year Beijing was handed the Olympic torch. They Province, for talking to some elderly included more than 30 police detentions of journalists, villagers engaged in a land dispute 1 . As usual, the 21 incidents of reporting materials being destroyed, and experience was unpleasant, humiliating and glaringly at 10 case of physical harassment, including several odds with the image of a modern, open, international beatings and a strip search, of reporters or their sources. country that China is trying to project to the outside This is not by any means a comprehensive total. Just world. It was not my first detention. under half of the 543 foreign journalists in China are Before I came to China in 2003, I had never had members of the FCCC. Many of those were reluctant to any serious trouble with the authorities in a 13-year provide details for the survey either because they were career covering a dozen countries - even including busy or they feared repercussions from the authorities. North Korea and Burma. But since I moved to Beijing Usually, detentions are a mere inconvenience. The in 2003, the police have detained me three times for, interrogators are generally polite and freedom can variously, talking to Tibetan activists in Beijing2, the usually be attained after two to six hours of questioning. widows of a mining accident in 3 , and the Unpleasant as it feels to be taken away by the police, peasants in Guangdong that I mentioned above. They there have – so far - been no long-term repercussions. It have also confiscated my press card once, state security is more than five years since a foreign journalist was agents have interrogated at least one of my assistants thrown out of China. and local officials and their hired thugs have frequently Far worse treatment is meted out to ethnic Chinese harassed and sometimes beaten my sources. There have journalists. Ng Han Guan, an Associated Press been three occasions when it has been clear that my photographer5 was clubbed and his camera smashed by phone conversations are monitored. And the behaviour plain-clothes security personnel when he took a picture of my internet provider - far slower and more erratic of a colleague being manhandled by police after the than in other countries, particularly when I used Asian Cup final in 2004. BBC producer Bessie Du and sensitive words - makes me suspect that my email is cameraman Al Go were strip-searched by police after being read and my online research disrupted. they visited a riot scene at Dingzhou village in province last summer. My biggest concern is for

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Chinese sources and assistants. It is as if there is a circle warned Fu last May that this was illegal. In the year of fire around correspondents in China - one that since, Fu has been beaten by thugs using police batons, protects the reporter but threatens anyone they come had his home broken into and received numerous death near. Four of the activists I have interviewed this year - threats. "We have no doubt that this incident was partly the blind, "barefoot lawyer" Chen Guangcheng 6 , the a revenge for Mr Fu Xiancai 's statement on German legal rights campaigner Gao Zhisheng 7 , Aids Television; also, because he had been called a "traitor" campaigner Hu Jia 8 and a land-dispute activist, who by local authorities for having talked to foreign media," asked to remain anonymous – are either in prison or the director general of ARD, Jobst Plog wrote in a letter detention as I write. to the Chinese ambassador in Berlin. He called on the Assistants are also vulnerable. Zhao Yan9, the New government to ensure that "Chinese citizens do not have York Times researcher, was recently sentenced to prison to fear for their health or life in the future", just because for three years ostensibly for fraud. His supporters say they make a factual statement to the foreign media. this charge was a fig leaf to cover the real reason for his The same month, police pressed charges against punishment: a New York Times story that former Chen Guangcheng13, the blind activist who exposed the president Jiang Zemin was about to step down as head government's coercive family planning of the military commission10. If the government had a methods to the central government and foreign media. stronger case, it did a bad public relations job in After being kept under illegal house arrest for almost a presenting it. The trial was held behind closed-doors year, Chen was sentenced last August to three years and and no witnesses were allowed to testify - all factors four months in prison for "inciting a mob to disrupt which raised suspicions that Zhao's sentence was traffic." His wife Yuan Wejiang and lawyers were retribution rather than justice. detained by police or placed under house arrest during A worrying trend has been the rise in violence his trial. meted out against sources by thugs. Last October, the Ｉ recently discovered that several of the land activist Lu Banglie was savagely beaten when he protestors I spoke to in Guangdong were also jailed in attempted to take one of my Guardian colleagues into June. It may have nothing to do with me – they had Taishi village in Guangdong, the site of a land dispute. been tussling with the authorities for more than a year When I went back six months later11, only a handful of and The Guardian took great precautions to keep their residents were still brave enough to talk. They said identities concealed in the published story – but there is there are still 30 guards restricting access to the area. a niggling thought in the back of my mind that the local "It's like there is a black fog enveloping the village," police may have found out about our interviews and one man told me. "Everyone feels they could be used it against them. arrested at any moment. It's appalling, like a form of The story is not all dark. At a central government level, terrorism." We had to break off our interview halfway I have never got into trouble as a result of a detention through because my source saw police officers entering by the local authorities. Indeed sometimes it feels like the restaurant where we were talking and he did not Beijing is grateful for the reports from the provinces want to be caught with a foreign reporter. gleaned by foreign correspondents who can provide an Such fears are understandable. The harshest alternative and unsanitised view of events. I have no retribution appears to have been meted out to Fu strong proof of this, but academics and officials have Xiancai - one of the most vocal opponents of the Three praised - though always off-record - the contribution Gorges Dam – who was left paralysed by a savage made by the foreign media in helping to expose the beating after he ignored police warnings not to speak to HIV-Aids scandal, mine disaster cover-ups, foreign journalists. On 8 June, Fu12 was attacked by bird-flu outbreaks and corruption and pollution scandals. unknown assailants on his way home from the Zigui I have never received an official complaint. public security bureau in Province, where he had As relations between the foreign media and the been interrogated about an interview he granted with central authorities thaw, there should be less suspicion reporters from the German channel ARD. Relatives say that we are trying to destabilise the government or the blow broke his neck, leaving him paralysed from demonise China, and more understanding that we are the neck down but able to speak. According to Human trying to seek out injustices that often remain hidden in Rights in China, Fu has been repeatedly warned by a political and legal system in which local cadres have police and local officials that he would be severely too much power and too little accountability. In many punished for talking to foreign journalists . A police cases, we help to bring local officials to task for failing investigation into the incident concluded that he broke to live up to the standards set at a national level. In a his neck in a fall down a steep slope. coincidence of interests, this means we sometimes Many activists appeal to the international media inadvertently act on behalf of the central authorities. because domestic news organisations are so tightly Neither side is likely to feel comfortable acknowledging censored. But the local police chief Xiankui this situation. But it happens and as a result the

http://www.chinamediaresearch.net 66 [email protected] China Media Research, 3(1), 2007, Watts, Tying to Commit Journalism in China correspondent is not just a middleman between two the value of history when it came to the atrocities countries, but between China's centre and its regions. committed by their neighbour more than half a century This means extra pressure, extra responsibility and ago. ‘Why,’ asked another questioner, referring to the potentially bigger results. That is one of the biggest massacre in Nanjing in 1937 and the imperial army's reasons why it is so satisfying to work in China as a use of sex slaves, ‘can't Japan face up to the past?’ correspondent. More than in any of the other countries I There is a cliché about western journalists that I have covered, it feels you can sometimes make a think is overstated. We are interested in democracy, difference here. dissidents and human rights. But not ONLY that. of my That said, my salary is being paid by readers in last 20 articles, only three were about these things. Of Britain rather the people I write about in China so my the other stories, the most detailed pieces were about coverage has to be partly shaped by the editorial the conservation of rare species (baiji dolphin and approach of my newspaper. But I feel lucky in this panda), interviews, the Africa summit, a family living respect. The Guardian is one of the most independent in a Beijing hutong (whose lives we will follow for one media organisations in the world. Because it is run by a year), expatriate life, North Korea, drug piracy and the trust, it does not need to answer to shareholders or Olympics. Then there were many day-to-day snippets tycoons. Thanks to the internet, it is also increasingly about auctions, corruption, HIV figures, new films, international. When I began working for The Guardian Taiwan politics, infrastructure investment and the one- in 1996, I was writing for a national newspaper with a dog policy. circulation of 400,000. Now the website - Guardian It reminds me of when I was a correspondent in Unlimited - is far more important with more than 12m Japan. At that time "western journalists" were always viewers around the world, the vast majority of whom criticised for writing stories about how strange Japan are not British. In a sign of changing priorities, foreign was. Actually, the ‘strange’ stories (e.g. about sex news stories go up on the web before they appear in the habits or odd TV programs or beetle vending machines) paper - a change introduced in the summer of 2006. were only a tiny proportion of my total output. But This brings my deadlines forward by a few hours, but these were the stories that everyone remembered and there has been no change in the hands-off approach of talked about. I think it is the same for China and human the desk. There is always consultation, but I feel free to rights. When I write about business plans or choose what I cover and how. I don't need to be told construction projects, it makes a small impact. But if I that The Guardian is most interested in ‘leftish’ social write about rural protests or pollution cover-ups, it is issues - income inequality, healthcare problems, bigger news. One of the biggest reasons for this is that industrial safety lapses, the deterioration of the the Chinese mainstream media cannot freely write environment and abuses of power. This is as true of my about many of these topics. That is why petitioners and coverage of China as it was of the UK or Japan. To the dissidents often turn to western journalists. I hear so extent that I am asked to write a certain type of story, it many horrible stories, I feel guilty that I cannot write is more likely to be a request in the nature of ‘give us about all of them. There are just too many. If the something with some more of those amazing statistics" Chinese media had more freedom, I think the situation or "can we have something about China's new rich.’ would be different. From the comments I read on the web and The biggest criticism has come from the sometimes in emails, it seems some people believe blogosphere - the growth of which has been perhaps the there is a homogeneous western media that is intent on biggest development during my three years in China. vilifying China. In an interview14 with a Chinese radio On one hand, blogs are a new source of tips for stories. station, the first question I was asked - only partly in The best is probably ESWN whose author Roland jest -was, ‘Why do foreign reporters hate China so Soong uses his formidable translation skills to provide a much?’ At a lecture15 I gave at a Beijing university last bridge between the Chinese media and the English- year, students politely lambasted me - and by speaking world. More importantly - and sometimes association all other foreign journalists - for painting more painfully - bloggers are also eager to serve as too negative a picture of China. ‘Why,’ asked one watchdogs on journalists. Although the process is still questioner, ‘do you keep writing about the Tiananmen rather scrappy, the blogosphere is now an arena where Square incident and the Cultural Revolution? The past correspondents can be publicly held to account. is the past. China has changed. It is time to move on.’ It is a welcome advance in democracy, but it can be He had a point. The world's most populous nation has messy. Being on the receiving end of a bloglashing is a been transformed in many ways since the dark days of sobering experience. I have variously been accused of Mao Zedong and the slaughter of civilians by the being in the pay of the communist party, having an anti- People's Liberation Army in 1989. But the same could Chinese bias, having an anti-Taiwan bias, plagiarism, also be said of Japan since the Second World War, yet distortion and being a tool of American propaganda. many of the students had a very different view about Even some of the usually more thoughtful

http://www.chinamediaresearch.net 67 [email protected] China Media Research, 3(1), 2007, Watts, Tying to Commit Journalism in China commentators seem to delight in finding slights - real longer. In seven years in Japan I wrote only one piece and imagined - in single articles and then projecting for the Guardian that was longer than 2,000 words. In them onto the entire foreign media. Last October, this my three years in China, I have done at least a dozen. hit home very hard when the blogosphere buzzed with Perhaps this is because the issues feel far more extreme criticism of The Guardian's coverage of the beating of in scale and consequence - and not only because China's rural activist Lu Banglie in Taishi. As our Readers population is 10 times bigger. One of the big stories Editor16, our newspaper was one of the first to establish during my time in Tokyo was a quarter per cent rise in the post of internal ombudsman noted in a published the interest rate, which - quite understandably - had column, our initial report included mistakes that were people chattering for months. In China, however, there result of an inexperienced journalist being put in an are so many life-or-death stories - that it is impossible extremely stressful situation. After a week spent to cover them all. For the aggrieved, journalists bureaus investigating this case, I believe this was the right become a second port-of call after the petition office. I judgment. I know of no other foreign correspondent in have heard countless heartbreaking stories of corruption China who has seen someone so savagely beaten in and abuses of power - but there is a limit to how many front of his or her eyes. We did indeed owe our readers land dispute pieces the editors back home are willing to an apology and we gave one. The same is not true of run. some of the some of the most prominent bloggers in But when you do get a story, it is often from the China, who accused The Guardian of trying to cover- source - and sometimes, even completely original. up 17 the mistake, and extrapolated from this single Because China is so vast and still so sparsely covered, incident a claim that foreign media abandon their local there is real chance here to dig up material that is at staff at the first hint trouble. least unique in the English media and sometimes - In private, one of the bloggers in question has since because of censorship - a real scoop even in China. apologised for going too far, but he has have never Usually, a great deal of what passes for foreign news publicly acknowledged that there was anything wrong reporting - including by this journalist - is largely with his initial condemnation. Rudyard Kipling's regurgitated newswire copy, albeit rewritten in a comment about the media having "power without particular style and tone to fit the readership, with fresh responsibility" now seems more suited to the bloggers. comments or analysis added. More satisfyingly, when But covering China has made me more aware than ever you want to explore major trends - the development of of the importance of traditional news reporting. Few the west, urbanisation, the dire condition of China's bloggers have the time, the resources or the waterways - you can head into the provinces and find organisational backing needed to go out into the field, the sort of gripping narratives and spectacular where many of the best stories are to be found. This is backdrops that make writing a pleasure. more the case in China than in Japan, where I was Which brings me back to my initial argument: that previously based. the Chinese government should reform the rules I compare the two in terms of footwear18. Japan restricting correspondents’ movements. was a beat for reporters with polished shoes - necessary According to article 15 (see Appendix 1) of the for walking the corridors of power in the Nagatacho regulations covering foreign journalists, we are political district, shareholders meetings in the Otemachi supposed to inform the foreign affairs department business district or - once in a blue moon - an audience (waiban) of the relevant province whenever we leave with the emperor at the Imperial Palace. China, on the Beijing, but in recent years, this practice is more other hand, is a news beat that requires sturdy boots, honoured in the breach than the observance. It, along which soon get covered in mud, sand and loess from with the overly vague article 14, should be abolished. peasant farms, desert roads and cave dwellings. One encouraging step in this direction was the issuance Because the country is so large and it is still so hard to of new regulations (Appendix 3) issued by the State get access to senior officials - let alone an audience Council in the run-up to the Olympics, which stated with president Hu Jintao - the story must be covered only that "to interview organisations or individuals in bottom-up rather than top-down. China, foreign journalists need only to obtain their prior This makes it far more interesting for a consent. The Foreign Correspondents Club of China has reporter, though the workload is greater. In Japan, cautiously welcomed the new rules, which come into which had started to go off the boil as far as effect on 1 January 2007, but we wait to see how they international coverage was concerned when I left in will be applied and whether this relaxed environment 2003, I was writing three or four articles a week, at least will last beyond 17 October 2008, when they expire and one of which was usually for the business pages. In the Olympic focus switches to London. China, which is considered very sexy at the moment, China, I suspect, sometimes gets more negative the figure is closer to five or six with a business piece coverage than it deserves because the old waiban only once every two weeks. The stories are also much system has pushed foreign correspondents into taking

http://www.chinamediaresearch.net 68 [email protected] China Media Research, 3(1), 2007, Watts, Tying to Commit Journalism in China sides. To do a sensitive story in the reporters, editors and media academics that I spoke to at provinces, journalists have had to choose between that time. Today, several of those people have been going officially and getting an overly rosy view of what locked up or fired. Those who still have their jobs tell is happening, or sneaking in without permission and me controls are far stiffer today. According to the hearing only the views of disgruntled peasants - many Committee to Protect Journalists, there are 32 reporters of whom have a financial incentive to exaggerate their in Chinese prisons – the highest in the world. Reporters woes because they want to use the media to seek without Borders adds 64 cyber-dissidents to this list. In compensation. The problem is that there is very little the past year alone, we have witnessed the jailing of middle ground – and in many cases that is where the Beijing-based documentary filmmaker Wu Hao, truth is probably to be found. reporters Yang Xiaoqing and Li Yuanlong, the firing of Forced to choose, most journalists give the Freezing Point editor Li Datong20 and the closure of benefit of the doubt to the little guy up against the countless blogs and bulletin boards. In August 2006, system. With the domestic media often muzzled and the The Straits Times correspondent Ching Cheong21 was courts in the pocket of local officials, there is often no jailed for five years on spying charges. other outlet for the voices of the oppressed. In the Chinese journalists sometimes provide information, bigger scheme of things, it also helps to balance against but they also face dangers. Every week the propaganda the state-controlled media. I try to get the official view departments of the state and provincial governments later by calling the relevant government departments, issue a list of prohibited stories. Journalists usually do but the spokesman's system – despite a much heralded not find out until their copy - often written and reform and expansion in 2003 – is not very helpful. researched at considerable personal risk - is spiked. On Phones often ring unanswered or are quickly hung up. two occasions, I have received tip offs from frustrated Faxes with questions and official chops are usually Chinese reporters, who were unwilling to comply with requested. If you get a short answer within a week, you official cover-ups so they passed on their stories to an are lucky. If local governments used their waiban outsider. Worryingly, in July last year the government resources to improve the spokesman's system rather also announced new plans to restrict coverage of than restricting visits, they would get a much better ‘sudden incidents’ – such as natural disasters and, return on their tax money. presumably, protests 22 . Two months later Xinhua I am hopeful that the new Olympic media unveiled new regulations 23 to punish foreign media regulations constitute a move in this direction. Several organisations for distribution of news deemed likely to senior figures have spoken up in favour of a shift of endanger China's national security, reputation and policy. As Wang Guoqing, vice-minister of the State interests, violate the state's religious policies or promote Council Information Office, told the China Daily: ‘In ‘evil cults’ or superstition. Though it remains to be seen the relationship between government and the media, we how these rules will affect coverage, the wording are promoting a shift from managing the press to suggests they are two steps backwards for press serving it, treating reporters as 'clients'". In the freedom. interview, he said the central government would When the Games begin, the organisers predict encourage local officials to ‘discard the previous 20,000 to 40,000 foreign journalists will be covering mentality, and face the media in an open and honest what China hopes will be a ‘coming of age’ celebration way’. If this can be done, China will do itself a big PR for the world's fastest growing major economy. In terms favour in the run up to the Olympics. In 2001, Beijing of living standards and infrastructure, they will made a promise: ‘We will give the media complete undoubtedly be impressed by the huge progress that has freedom to report when they come to China,’ said been made in the past 30 years. But unless Beijing is Wang Wei, secretary-general of the Beijing Olympic serious about relaxing its controls on the media, many Games bid committee. ‘We are confident that the reports from China will also focus on tight censorship, Games coming to China not only promotes our the arrests of journalists and the beatings and economy but also enhances all social conditions, intimidation of sources and assistants. Apart from war including education, health, and human rights.’ Last zones, Chinese journalists operating in other countries - year (2006) A similar reassurance was given by the including big nations such as Russia and India - do not head of the organising committee19. need permission to leave the capital cities where they However, in recent years, the media climate seems are based and for the most part, they do not need to fear to have become more rather than less repressive. My for the safety and freedom of those they come into sense is that the situation has worsened since I arrived contact with. The only country which has remotely in Beijing three years ago. In retrospect, 2003 was similar regulations is North Korea. China should aspire something of a golden age for Chinese journalism. The to higher standards. pioneering exposes of SARs and the death in detention Beijing – and in particular the State Council and of Sun Zhigang inspired great hope in many of the local the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – knows this and has

http://www.chinamediaresearch.net 69 [email protected] China Media Research, 3(1), 2007, Watts, Tying to Commit Journalism in China become far more sophisticated in its attempt to shape ever be entirely objective. Fairness and transparency are global images of China. The use of sticks has got more realistic goals. But in China, there is so little harsher in the case of Zhao Yan and others. But in other transparency that I can feel myself being tugged areas, there have been more carrots. China is far more towards articles about the dispossessed and disgruntled open than it was 10 years ago. Restrictions on where rather than stories about the successful and the journalists live and set up offices have been lifted. We contented. One way to balance this would be to develop can freely choose our assistants, whereas in the past all more high-level contacts, but this has proved much appointments had to be made through the Diplomatic harder in China than in the UK, Japan or South Korea. Service Bureau. Most tellingly, no foreign reporter has I also wish I could speak better Mandarin25 so that I been expelled for at least six years. These are gains, but am less dependent on interpretation. More than cultural surely things that reporters in most other major differences, the language barrier is the biggest obstacle countries take for granted. It may be no coincidence I face. But this problem can be overstated. Newspapers that the tone of coverage has also undergone a change – have long debated whether to choose only Chinese- at least that is the impression of the government. On speaking correspondents or provide them with more June 24, Wang Guoqing, deputy chief of the State training. But I wonder how big a difference it would Council Information Office, announced24 that Western make. In Tokyo, I spoke sufficiently fluent Japanese not reporting of China had taken a turn for the better. to need an assistant but I do not believe my coverage of According to his office's analysis of 243 articles last that country was any deeper or more comprehensive year from "mainstream" Western media, only 34 than the work I am doing now. That said, when percent were deemed ‘prejudiced’. The rest were misunderstandings occur, they need to be cleared up. judged balanced or impartial. By comparison, in the Like any of our readers, government officials are free to 1990s, 60-70 per cent of western articles were deemed tell us when we make mistakes and let us correct them negative. in print - as The Guardian often does - or give bloggers No doubt we would disagree on the criteria used more freedom to point out our faults. With a country for this assessment, but I think there may well have this big, this complex and this fast moving, they are been a slight convergence of views between the central bound to emerge. Never have I felt more stress, or more government and the media on what constitutes a fair satisfaction than in the past three years. China is picture of China. The more access a journalist gets, the categorised as a hardship posting. But it is also a closer to the truth he should come so the less there privilege to watch the development of this nation. should be to find fault in his articles. That is an Surely there is no more compelling story that a optimist's view. But I think you have to be positive in correspondent can cover without a flak jacket. looking at the future of China. Of course, many things are wrong and many things could get a lot worse. But if About the author we are not optimistic about this giant country - with a Jonathan Watts is the East Asia correspondent for fifth of the world's population and a fast increasing The Guardian and The Observer. A 39-year-old share of its economy - we cannot be optimistic about London-born graduate of Manchester University and humanity. the School of Oriental and African Studies, he reported But for the same reason, we should not be afraid to on Japan for seven years before taking up his post in be critical or to defend values that we think are Beijing in August 2003. His career includes coverage of important. Compared to the dramatic economic changes the Asian financial crisis 1997-98, the G8 summit in that China has undergone in the past two decades, the Okinawa in 2000, the South Korea-Japan World Cup lack of press freedom stands out as one of the most 2002, the Tsunami disaster in 2005 and the ongoing glaring anachronisms of the political system. The nuclear standoff between the United States and North restrictions on foreign journalists' movements, the Korea. harassment of our sources and the intimidation of Before his employment by the Guardian, he has Chinese journalists are increasingly a cause for concern previously worked for The Hokkaido Shimbun and The for foreign governments and international organisations. Daily Yomiuri. As a freelancer, he has contributed to It is absurd that reporters are forced to write self- Mother Jones, The Christian Science Monitor, The criticisms as a punishment for covering disease, South China Morning Post, The New Statesman and disasters and demonstrations. Hopefully with the new The Asahi Shimbun, as well as filming, writing and regulations that will end. That is not to deny that I directing news programs on China and North Korea for constantly need to reflect on my coverage. I do have a BBC Newsnight and Channel 4 News. He currently bias. I have never fully ascribed to the view of total serves as a director of the Foreign Correspondents Club journalistic detachment: If you see someone suffering, of China and head of the press freedom committee. your first duty as a human being is to help him or her, While in Tokyo, he was vice-president of the Foreign not to record his or her pain. Nor do I believe can we Correspondents Club of Japan.

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Physical Harassment of Sources 2 incidents Appendix 1: Images, Notes Destroyed/Confiscated 21 incidents Article 15. From the Handbook for Foreign Journalists No. Locations total 13 Provinces in China: ’Foreign journalists shall apply for approval Rural 27 Urban 36 (Beijing 25) through the information department to interview top Number of Nationalities of News Organizations leaders of China, and shall apply to the relevant foreign Reporting Interference 15 affairs department for approval for news coverage Surveys were distributed to foreign correspondents in regarding China's government department or other Beijing in spring and departments. Foreign journalists shall obtain in advance summer 2006. In addition to the above table, there were permission from the foreign affairs office of the 15 incidents reported people's government or a province, autonomous region before 2004. Over a half dozen correspondents said or municipality directly under the Central Government they had experienced too for news coverage in an open area in China. They shall many cases of harassment to remember them all. submit a written application to the Information ABOUT THE FCCC: The Foreign Correspondents Department for permission to cover news in a non-open Club of China has 210 members from 21countries. The area in China. Upon approval, they shall go through vast majority are Beijing-based journalists for the formalities for travel documents from the relevant world's leading media public security organ.’ Appendix 3 Appendix 2 REGULATIONS ON REPORTING ACTIVITIES IN FCCC HARASSMENT SURVEY CHINA BY FOREIGN JOURNALISTS DURING Summary of findings THE BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES AND THE The following table shows cases of detention, violence PREPARATORY PERIOD (announced December 1 or obstruction reported by foreign journalists since 2004, 2006) the year China received the Olympic torch. Article 6: To interview organizations or individuals in Incidents reported between 2004-July 2006 China, foreign journalists need only to obtain their prior Total No. of Incidents 72 incidents consent. Detentions (Typically 30 min. to half a day) 38 Article 9: These Regulations shall come into force as of incidents (85 people. Some more than once) 1 January 2007 and expire on 17 October 2008. Journalist Turned Away 33 incidents (69 people) For full text see Physical Harassment of Journalists 8 incidents (10 http://english.cri.cn/2946/2006/12/01/[email protected] people)

1 [Guardian] Jonathan Watts (27 May, 2006), ‘The Big Steal’; available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1782978,00.html 2 [Guardian] Jonathan Watts (September 6, 2004), ‘China's False Start’; available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1297978,00.html 3 [Guardian] Jonathan Watts (March 14, 2004) ’Blood and Coal: the Cost of Cheap Chinese Goods’; available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1437055,00.html 4 [FCCC] (8 August, 2006), ‘Widespread Detentions of Foreign Journalists Show China Unprepared to Host Olympic Press Corp in 2008’; available at: http://www.fccchina.org/what/newmelinda.html 5 [FCCC] (September, 2004), ‘The Case of the Asian Cup Beating’; available at:http://www.fccchina.org/what/beating.html 6 [Guardian] Jonathan Watts (25 August, 2006), ‘China jails human rights campaigner" (blind activist Chen Guangcheng); available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1857795,00.html 7 [AFP] Cindy Sui (September 7, 2006), ‘Rights campaigner arrested in China’ (Aids activist Hu Jia); available at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060907/hl_afp/chinarightsdissidentaids_060907101018 8 [Reuters] Chris Buckley (August 18, 2006), ‘China holds rights advocates before activist trial’ (lawyer Gao Zhisheng); available at: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/18082006/6/n-world-china-holds-rights-advocates-activist-trial.html 9 [New York Times] Jim Yardley and Joseph Kahn (August 25, 2006), ‘China Gives Times Researcher 3 Years’, available at:

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/world/asia/25zhaobox.html?ex=1314158400&en=df0d418c89cb3ba0&ei=509 0&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss 10 [New York Times] By Joseph Kahn (September 19, 2004), ‘Resignation of China's Senior Leader Appears Imminent’; available at: http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0D11FD3F5D0C7A8DDDA00894DC404482&n=Top%2fRefere nce%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fJ%2fJiang%20Zemin 11 [Guardian Limited] Jonathan Watts (May 2, 2006), ‘Some Villagers are angry but most are just afraid’; available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1765675,00.html 12 [AP] Audra Ang (July 27, 2006), ‘China Says Activist Broke His Own Neck’; available at:http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2242884 13 [Guardian] Jonathan Watts (25 August, 2006), ‘China jails human rights campaigner" (blind activist Chen Guangcheng); available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1857795,00.html 14 [China Radio International] (February 6, 2005), ‘Western Journalism in China’; available at: http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/2237/2005-3-29/[email protected] 15 [Guardian Limited] Jonathan Watts (June 24, 2005), ‘A tale of two massacres’; available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1514101,00.html 16 [Guardian] Ian Mayes (October 17, 2005), ‘Seeing and believing in China’; available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1593645,00.html 17 [EWSN]By Michael Anti and translated by EWSN (October 11, 2005), ‘Blogger Anti criticized that Guardian tried to cover up Taishi case’; available at: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20051011_2.htm 18 [Number 1 Shumbun] Jonathan Watts (October 2004), ‘From Polished Shoes to Muddy Boots’. 19 [Guardian] Jonathan Watts (September 6, 2006), ‘Media will be free to roam during Olympics, pledges Beijing’; available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1865766,00.html 20 [Guardian] Jonathan watts (January 26, 2006), ‘China cracks down on critical publication’ (freezing point); available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1694955,00.html 21 [AFP] (August 30, 2006), ‘China jails HK journalist for five years for spying’; available at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060831/wl_asia_afp/chinahongkongsingaporetaiwanjusticemediaconfirm 22 [Guardian] Jonathan Watts (July 4, 2006), ‘China's media faces fines for reporting disasters’; available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1812425,00.html 23 [The Associated Press] (September 10, 2006), ‘China tightens controls on news distribution, restricting foreign media sales’; available at: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/10/asia/AS_GEN_China_News_Controls.php 24 [EWSN] (June 24, 2006) by Wang Fei from Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kong Pao and translated by blog EWSN, ‘The Deionisation of China’; available at:http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060624_1.htm 25 [Guardian Limited] Jonathan Watts (February 16, 2006), ‘Empire of signs’; available at:http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1710992,00.html

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