SPIEGEL: How have you been lately?

Ai: In general I am fine; my situation is as good as anybody else’s. It is still difficult but that’s because I want to put up a fight. I could have a more comfortable life if I gave up on this, and so could my relatives, my friends and state security.

SPIEGEL: Why don’t you want this?

Ai: Because I can’t feel comfortable if I have to give up my — and other people’s –rights for that. If I have to ignore injustice that I simply cannot ignore. My world is so connected to the world of others, how can I pretend I don’t know about those things? […]

SPIEGEL: Outside of China you are not only known for your art and your tweets, but also because you frequently speak to foreign journalists. How would you describe your relationship with the Western media?

Ai: Journalists are professionals. They look at the truth the way doctors look at it — not like a patient. As an artist I try to maintain the truth on a level where it can be more easily shared and accepted. Art has to be innocent. Journalists have to make judgements. That’s why they covered the tragic Boston attacks widely, but didn’t cover the 122 Tibetans who have immolated themselves over the past months. And that’s why many of you write about my struggle but not about the struggle of others.

SPIEGEL: Do you think you are getting too much media attention?

Ai: It certainly raises my responsibility. […] [Source]

Ai and Zand also discuss Ai’s participation in the Venice Bienniale in June, his personal circumstances in China, and why “if I was a Western politician, I probably would like dictators, too.” The artist has recently branched out into bad hairdressing and, like the Ministry of Public Security, is also taking aim at China’s repeated milk safety scandals. Meanwhile, his Sunflower Seeds have returned to London in an unofficial exhibition of seeds stolen from previous showings.

At Tea Leaf Nation, Shi Yunhan reports Mo Yan’s professed hope that the Nobel spotlight will soon fade, allowing him to return to writing in relative obscurity. Shi quotes from Mo’s recent speech at the 2nd Sino-Australian Literary Forum in Beijing:

Whether or not I deserved the Nobel Prize, I already received it, and now it’s time to get back to my writing desk and produce a good work. I hear that the 2013 list of Nobel Prize nominees has been finalized. I hope that once the new laureate is announced, no one will pay attention to me anymore.

[…] The prize money does not come out of taxpayers’ pockets, so I don’t have such responsibilities. I hate partisan politics and how people gang up on opponents based on ideology. I like to come and go on my own, which allows me to look on from the sidelines with a clear mind and gain insight about the world and the human condition. I don’t have the capability or interest of becoming a politician. I just want to write, quietly, and do some charity work in secret.

[…] It is not surprising to hear Mo Yan point out that a Nobel laureate has no technical obligations for increased social activism. Even before he won the Nobel Prize, Mo Yan spoke negatively on the public duties that can come with literary awards. It is also in line with his pen name, which means “don’t speak” in Chinese. The phrase refers to an ancient saying calling ordinary people to refrain from speaking out in public, especially on state affairs. However, now that he is China’s first officially acknowledged Nobel laureate, his sincere desire for a low-profile openly runs against his adoption by the Chinese government as a national symbol and source of pride. [Source]

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ai Weiwei, artists, journalism, media, mo yan, Nobel Prize, self-immolations, social responsibility, western media
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Responding to regional worries over North Korea’s bellicose threats, China on Sunday expressed concern and what appeared to be veiled criticism of its longtime ally.

“No one should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gains,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping at an economic forum in Hainan province. Avoiding mentioning North Korea by name, Xi said, “While pursuing its own interests, a country should accommodate the legitimate interests of others.”

[...]China — long seen as a key factor propping up the regime in Pyongyang — recently has shown signs of frustration after North Korea ignored its pleas not to carry out a recent nuclear test.

Bloomberg explains why Xi’s comments should be interpreted as directed at North Korea, despite the fact that he didn’t mention the country by name:

“While President Xi didn’t refer to North Korea, it is fair” to interpret his comments as directed toward the Korean situation, said Fang Xiuyu, a professor of Korean studies at Fudan University. “Xi’s remarks are the most decisive comments so far from the Chinese side of the issue.”

Xi’s speech was covered from a similar angle elsewhere in the western press. However, Xi’s indirect reference to North Korea appears to be a footnote in a larger discourse dealing more directly with China’s peaceful development and its role in maintaining rapport with its neighbors in the region. Coverage from the Global Times seems to show Xi’s emphasis on continuity in regional diplomacy:

President Xi Jinping said China will make contributions toward peace and development in Asia and the world at an international forum that opened on Sunday.

China will vigorously promote development and prosperity in both Asia and the world, Xi said when delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2013 in Boao, a coastal town in south China’s Hainan Province.

“Countries, whether big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, should all contribute their share in maintaining and enhancing peace,” Xi said.

[...]Xi also said China will continue to properly handle differences and frictions with relevant nations.

While upholding its sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, China will maintain good relations with its neighbors, as well as maintain overall peace and stability in the region, he said.

A post from All Things Nuclear looks at recent foreign and domestic coverage of China’s stance on North Korea to argue that the U.S. media is exaggerating a possible shift in Chinese foreign policy:

There is no visible sense that China’s propaganda machinery is preparing the Chinese public for major events on the peninsula or for a change in Chinese policy. There is little sense of emergency or crisis. [...]

The main Chinese themes on North Korea have not changed as a result of the current situation. China would like to see a relaxation of tensions, renewed regional dialog and economic reform. They do not appear to believe there is a high risk of armed conflict. They argue sanctions are counterproductive and the United States should engage directly with the leaders of North Korea at a high level in order to provide the sense of security they now seek through nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. The one change repeated to me by several Chinese colleagues this week is China now believes North Korea is determined to build a functional nuclear deterrent. They blame the United States for that development. It is, as the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, “regrettable.” But there is no apparent justification for assuming it will be a turning point for Chinese foreign policy.

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: diplomacy, media, North Korea, North Korea relations, western media coverage, Xi Jinping
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Extensive non-coverage of the H7N9 bird flu, which has sickened and killed several patients in Shanghai and surrounding provinces.

The April 5th edition of CCTV’s flagship evening news program News Simulcast did not mention a word about the H7N9 strain of bird flu, which has already claimed six lives. Instead, it dwelt on the tidal bore coming up the Amazon River and, taking advantage of the “Sino-African honey moon” following Xi Jinping’s visit, the Great Migration on the Serengeti. CCTV has manifest its “selective blindness” before, such as when it covered Hurricane Sandy but ignored protests in Ningbo.

This has triggered harsh criticism online. One Weibo user posted a list of topics covered in today’s broadcast:

News Simulcast Program, April 5, 2013

1. Xi Jinping holds ceremony to welcome Bruneian Sultan Hassanal’s visit to China.
2. Xi Jinping holds talks with Bruneian Sultan Hassanal. The two heads of state decide to promote the Sino-Bruneian relationship to the level of “strategic cooperation.”
3. Xi Jinping holds ceremony to welcome Burmese president’s visit to China.
4. During his meeting with Burmese president Thein Sein, Xi Jinping emphasizes the need to strictly hold to the correct direction, ceaselessly push forward the Sino-Burmese friendship.
5. Li Keqiang meets with Bruneian Sultan Hassanal.
6. Zhang Dejiang meets with Bruneian Sultan Hassanal.
7. For the first time, the Boao Forum for Asia will include political leaders and issues from all five continents.
8. Amazon River awaits tidal bore. Our reporters are carefully preparing for live broadcast.
9. Report on 2013 Great Migration in East Africa.
10. President of Tanzania: CCTV’s live broadcast on Great Migration is exceptionally meaningful.
11. Shanxi: Getting through “the last kilometer” of agrarian hydraulic project.
12. 【News Feature】Morticians: Understanding is as precious as life.
13. Domestic news bulletin.
14. Second round of dialogue of Iran nuclear crisis takes place in Almaty.

Popular “weiber” Zuoyeben weighs in:

@作业本: Sina Weibo is brimming with discussion of the bird flu, while News Simulcast doesn’t even say a word. Now that’s the biggest gap in the world.

Zuoyeben has 5.51 million followers on Sina Weibo.

新浪微博满屏都是禽流感的消息，新闻联播一字没提，这就是世界上最遥远的距离。

“H7N9″ is currently the second hottest topic on Weibo, followed by “bird flu.” At the same time, some weibo critical of the government’s delay in reporting flu cases have been deleted.

More Weibo commentary:

@温州张宏良: Nothing about the H7N9 avian flu. News Simulcast has been reduced to a journalistic disgrace!

没有H7N9禽流感新闻，《新闻联播》已沦为新闻的耻辱！

@袁道唯: If the virus were had taken lives in Europe or the U.S., you can imagine how much CCTV would flog the story.

要是这病毒是在欧美整出人命，可以想像央视会多么地连篇累牍。

@ 威尼斯的彩虹-ljf: CCTV is no longer the people’s television station–if it ever had been! It only exists to make profit and numb the masses. Is anyone still watching CCTV? Does anyone still need the brain-washing?

央视已经不是人民的电视台，或者一直都不是！它只不过是追求利润，麻木大众的工具而已。大家还要看央视，还要被洗脑吗？

@秦前红: The issues at home, the bird flu, water pollution, the dead pigs, none of these get covered, but you run around reporting on tidal waves in Brazil and Africa’s Great Migration. CCTV is pretty damn sick!

自己的禽流感、水污染、死猪事件等全部不播，却跑去播巴西潮水、非洲动物迁徙，央视真TM有病！

Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Mengyu Dong.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bird flu, CCTV, H7N9, media, Netizen Voices, News Simulcast, public health, weibo
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As was highlighted at a recent conference at Oxford University, Chinese news media are seeking to compete with players such as CNN and Al Jazeera, but they are rolling out what they claim is a different approach to journalism. What Chinese media are offering to Africa is “positive reporting,” a style of journalism that focuses on collective achievements rather than divisive issues like political crises or sensational negative news like famines.

[...] The Africa of today, while still consumed by many intractable problems, is no longer the Africa of the 1990s: Millions of Africans are seizing on unprecedented opportunities to build new lives.

This optimistic message about Africa turning a corner has faced criticism on different fronts. One of the most pertinent charges is that “positive reporting” fails to deliver on one of the main mandates of journalism: acting as a watchdog and keeping those in power in check, rather than praising them for their successes.

[...] A major potential pitfall is that an equally stereotypical positive image will substitute a stereotypical negative image of Africa. There is a crowd of self-appointed experts of the continent who are reinventing clichés to stress Africa’s untapped potential, when just a few years ago they were the propagators of a relentless Afro-pessimism.

As the article notes, China Central Television has also been moving into Africa. At Foreign Policy last month, Alex Pasternack examined the network’s parallel efforts to gain a foothold in the United States. Observers have been divided over the effectiveness of this state media expansion. See also more on Sino-African relations via CDT.

© Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Africa, Africa relations, China Daily, journalism, media, soft power
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Chinese media have been blanketed this week with coverage of Hurricane Sandy, the storm that battered the mid-Atlantic region of the United States on October 29 and 30. Since October 30, 1,290 articles on Hurricane Sandy have appeared in mainland media. That includes 709 newspaper stories, 171 wire stories and 410 web stories [Source: WiseNews].

[…] In yesterday’s edition of the Chinese-language Global Times, He Hui (何辉), head of the Public Relations and Public Opinion Institute of the Communication University of China, writes that, yes, Hurricane Sandy is an important story for Chinese media.

[…] The Global Times editorial makes a rather typical, out-of-the-box Party argument (in line with the CCP “soft power” mainstream) that Chinese media should try to accommodate the demands of foreign audiences in order to expand their reach while at the same time maintaining “a Chinese position.

However, ordinary Chinese are not buying the story, especially when it squeezes out coverage on domestic issues, such as the Ningbo PX protests. Some Weibo user chafe at an apparent double standard used by CCTV in Hurricane Sandy and Ningbo PX coverage. From Ed Flanagan at NBC News:

[...A]s a popular online cartoonist who goes by the pen name “Murong Aoao” sardonically put it: “CCTV is an excellent American media company.”

In a cartoon that has been shared more than 50,000 times on Weibo, Murong paints what appears to be a CCTV reporter or government employee pointing to what is assumed is the United States while calling out, “Look! His house is on fire!” all while he himself is ablaze.

[...] State media was allegedly warned not to cover the story and when thousands flocked to the streets of Ningbo to peacefully protest the plant, only foreign media could be seen in the city reporting on the gatherings, sparking applause from grateful locals.

“CCTV sends lots of correspondents to the U.S. to report on Sandy,” complained one irate user. “Why don’t they have time for Ningbo, but plenty for America?”

Other hot comments on weibo link the massive coverage of the hurricane with family members of high officials residing overseas. ChinaSMACK rounds up such satirical weibo posts:

I think we shouldn’t criticized CCTV for its extensive coverage of the America’s Hurricane Sandy situation. So many children and relatives of government leaders, including the children of the various big and small leaders within CCTV itself, are all studying abroad or working in America, with New York and the East Coast further being where many leaders’ children are concentrated. With a hurricane this big, if CCTV doesn’t report it, would you have the leaders go watch English CNN? The leaders are also parents, with the long-suffering heart of parents, right? What CCTV is doing is a good thing.

[...] There are a lot of very outstanding Chinese people and America has the world’s best higher educational institutions, the largest economic system, so Chinese-Americans excelling there is a good thing. Even if their parents used to be corrupt officials or unscrupulous businessmen, of bad backgrounds and guilty of serious wrongdoing, if their next generation being in American can be infected by the ideals of freedom and democracy, then use their various efforts to give back to China, that too is a good thing…

[...] When government leaders check the weather reports, first they look at Beijing, second New York, third Sydney. Definitely a view of the whole world.

Avid fans of international relations may echo the analysis of Washington Post’s Max Fishier on a weibo post mocking a diplomatic tone:

[...T]his one comment, from a Sichuan-based Weibo user named @wangfei20, really struck me:

As to the dispute between the United States and Sandy, we do not take a position. We hope that both sides see the situation clearly, see peace and unity as the main aim, and manage their previous conflicts.

[...] The joke is a reference to a State Department spokesman’s statement in July about a small chain of uninhabited islands that both China and Japan claim: “The U.S. policy does not take a position on the question of the ultimate sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands, and we expect the claimants to resolve the issue through peaceful means among themselves.”

[...] This Weibo jokester, in drawing a parallel between the island dispute and hurricane Sandy, seems to be highlighting the absurdity of the U.S. declaration that it “takes no position.”

Despite the online wording game carnival, some businessmen also have their eyes glued on the profit-steering hurricane. From Jibeibei at Global Times:

“We dispatched 3,700 power generator units for household use on Monday alone,” said Leng Wenqiang, general manager of the sales department at the Chongqing RATO Power Co. in Southwest China.

Leng told a local paper, the Chongqing Morning Post, that he expected the dispatch volume for early November to increase by 30 percent month-on-month. Ordinarily the company dispatches 15,000 to 20,000 units a month to its US clients.

[...] International airports in New York have been almost entirely closed since Monday and won’t open until Wednesday morning local time, and flights from Shanghai to New York by China Eastern Airlines have also been canceled.

Industry insiders in China said that fuel prices had been expected to fall in November, after an extended plunge in international oil prices, however this price reduction may be disrupted by the arrival of Sandy.

For more roundups of online opinions in China about Hurricane Sandy, see Chinese Web Users’ Funny and Disturbing Responses to Sandy’s Impact, via Tea Leaf Nation. See also a Sandy-related cartoon in this week’s edition of CDT’s Drawing the News.

© Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CCTV, Global Times, hurricane sandy, media, online public opinion, political humor, soft power, weibo
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Fourteen words that capture the seismic shift underway in the global media scene, one with the potential to change mainstream thinking – and challenge the value system – of the world we live in. As Western newspapers and broadcasters close bureaus, cut staff and erect paywalls, the emerging media companies owned by the Communist Party of China, the Emir of Qatar and Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin continue to expand their influence and reach.

[…] There are those who argue this is all fair play, that the Western media played a cheerleading role in the Arab Spring (and before that, the U.S. invasion of Iraq). After all, the China Daily is only giving a different take on world events, something it’s clearly entitled to do. The danger is that it and other state mouthpieces are in ascendance at precisely the time the Western media, with its traditions of independence and objectivity, is in deepening crisis.

Even during the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war – the greatest recent failure of the Western media in its role as a check on power – there was always an attempt to be objective. Dissenting views were printed and broadcast, even if they were arguably marginalized. It’s a rare day when you can say the same about the pages of the China Daily, or the newscasts on RT [Russia Today] News.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Arab Spring, China Daily, iraq, media, news media, western media
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There is the question of what happens when students leave classrooms run by foreign journalists and enter the real world which, for most of them, means working for state-controlled media. Some say they find ways to work within the system.

“Every system has a rule, has a boundary, even in the Western media, so I think if you want to play the game better, it is better you respect the rules first,” said a reporter who studied journalism overseas and now works for a state-run newspaper who requested anonymity out of concern about losing her job. “Maybe someday when you become a really famous reporter, maybe you will have the ability to push the boundary a little, but I never say I want to change the whole system, no.”

Another anonymous journalist said that he teaches about the Pentagon Papers, the First Amendment, and the concept of independent judiciary. The article also presents the competition between government sponsored media outlets and international news corporations:

[China is] conflicted about its relationship with the international media. On one hand, foreign correspondents can face pressure; one recent example is the removal of Melissa Chan, an outspoken correspondent for Al Jazeera. On the other hand, the Chinese government is pouring billions of dollars into state-run media, which are opening bureaus worldwide as part of a strategy to create news agencies that can compete with CNN or the BBC.

See also: Journalist Expelled from China Reflectsvia CDT and other articles about foreign correspondents and press freedom in China.

© Wendy Qian for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, foreign correspondents, higher education, media, media conditions, press freedom
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The Chinese government has dreamed for years of launching an English-language news network that could successfully compete with CNN or Al Jazeera for global eyeballs. Yesterday, Chinese government officials announced the launch of a new network, TodayChina, to debut in February. This will be China’s third attempt to start a BBC of its own. Will the third time be the charm?

[...] According to Bloomberg, the network will air news and entertainment programming in English and Chinese. TodayChina will be operated by a public-private partnership between china.com.cn (the Chinese government’s official web portal and Internet content outfit) and private firm CMMB Holdings. CMMB’s main business is developing technology that allows mobile smartphones and vehicles to receive UHF television signal–this may indicate why the Chinese government is interested in yet another English-language news station. Mobile television is poised to become a big business in 2012 and 2013, and the launch allows China to have an early presence.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: external propaganda, media
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Non-disclosure should be an exception, not the rule. But in practice, even though a regulation has been put in place, the opposite is true. This state of affairs must be reversed.

In a modern society that values people’s right to self-determination, the government should exercise power with openness. China’s government departments have a long way to go in this regard. Some behave like a tiger, others like a Mafia boss. Officials attitudes can range from arrogant to secretive to downright mean.

When authorities act in ways that fan public resentment, discontent can boil over in times of crises, damaging the government’s credibility and threatening social stability.

It’s inevitable that Chinese society, rife with contradictions, will have some problems with governance. But repeated bungling by government officials suggests an inability to keep pace with China’s economic growth and social development.

Change is coming fast mainly for two reasons. Civil rights awareness has grown since China opened its doors to the rest of the world more than 30 years ago, and a traditional subject-ruler mindset is giving way to civic awareness. Secondly, the Internet’s information revolution now spreads news widely, at high speed and low cost, shaping the course of public affairs.

The article goes on to note that, “incredibly”, some officials’ commitment to transparency does not extend as far as answering to the media. Such attitudes might be discouraged by the case of the director of a Fujian city’s environmental protection bureau, who has been suspended for refusing to answer a reporter’s questions. From China Daily:

A local TV reporter called Chen Guiguang in late July, trying to ask him about a settlement in a pollution case that had occurred in the city. The reporter’s request for an interview was rejected.

“You shouldn’t be calling my number,” Chen said to the reporter, according to video footage posted on a micro blog by the TV station on Aug 4.

“If everybody could call me whenever they wanted, wouldn’t that mean a bureau chief is worth nothing?

“My number shouldn’t be called by ordinary people. Why should my phone be reachable by people in the public like you?”

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: government officials, media, officials, pollution, transparency
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Chinese media have interpreted this State Council demand as meaning that 30 June was the deadline for all central government agencies to publish their three-public budgets. Since the beginning of July, media have kept close watch over each agency’s move. By July 7, only three out of the 98 central government agencies had published their three-public budgets. With media applying constant pressure, the number of agencies disclosing their budgets increased to 27 by July 15 and 73 by July 22.

In addition to monitoring compliance among agencies, Chinese media have also compared the information released by each agency, praising those that offered details and explanations and criticizing those whose budgetary reports were opaque. In general, media appear to have been unimpressed. Not only have agencies been slow and stingy in releasing information, according to reports, but some agencies have even resorted to tactics such as publishing their budgets during weekends to try to avoid scrutiny ….

Despite the mixed results of this particular disclosure experiment, and despite all the questions that remain, the mere fact of that some numbers were made public bodes well. As one recent editorial in the Global Times, a tabloid published by the official People’s Daily, rightly argues (in Chinese): “Once this step has been taken, there will be no going back. This move will probably be a milestone in creating an open government in China. It is also a significant political reform measure.”

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: budget, Global Times, media, official conduct, official trips overseas, people's daily, spending, State Council, transparency
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… China’s new generation of metropolitan newspapers, current affairs magazines and Internet media have all reported on the quake with an intensity and professionalism that has not been possible in the past, when stories were banned outright or media were instructed to use only pre-approved releases from the official Xinhua News Agency. Hundreds of Chinese reporters have filed stories from the front lines of the rescue and relief effort in Sichuan. Students and volunteers have blogged their eyewitness accounts. Web portals have aggregated quake-related content, opening up topical pages, offering online slideshows and video. Chat rooms have hummed with activity. And media, new and traditional alike, have teemed with suggestions, cautions, calls and criticisms from Chinese of all walks of life.

This is possible, in part, because Chinese media have undergone important changes over the last decade. Once solely supported by the state, media have moved progressively into a more open marketplace where they must compete fiercely for audiences and ad revenues. This means they answer increasingly to readers, even as they are still ultimately accountable to party leaders. China’s vital and growing media industry has also fostered a growing sense of professionalism among journalists, who see themselves less and less as mere pawns of the state press apparatus.

The power of the Internet and new media has coalesced with the trends of professionalism and media commercialization to create a force China’s leaders find increasingly difficult to control. And this is why, when top leaders experimented with a more open approach to information after the Sichuan earthquake, the flood gates were opened.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet media, media
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The earth is shifting in China in more ways than geologic.

The Internet has opened the flow of information here. The same technology the government has promoted as a way to bring education and intellectual resources to an undereducated population has also been a vehicle for challenging censorship. Today, there are far fewer secrets than in the past. News appears on the Internet within minutes of breaking, and state media are often forced to follow.

Consider the 2005 case of a tainted water supply. The city of Harbin’s 5 million inhabitants were told to drink only bottled water but were not told why. The news that a chemical factory had exploded upstream from the city was suppressed in the local media. Internet messages revealed the pollution in the region’s main river, and, soon, municipal and provincially controlled media outlets had to tell the story.

These shifts have produced a tug of war in the propaganda ministry between traditionalists, who want to maintain control and suppress bad news, and reformers, who — while not advocating unrestricted media — see the need to accept the new realities of the Internet and the blogosphere. The government maintains as much control as it can by blocking the sites from which it fears direct attacks on the government and leadership.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: media
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Here is the famous page (page A5 of the October 16, 2006 issue of Yangzhou Evening News) that will live on in the history of Chinese journalism (see yznews).

Here are the detailed photos of the ancient city of Yangzhou from Xinhua Net as shown on that famous page…

Isn’t this wonderful! Oh, wait! There is a huge problem here. [Full Text]

(...)
Read the rest of Faked Newspaper Page Won Top Chinese Journalism Award, and CCTV’s Plagiarism Got Caught By Bloggers (149 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CCTV, journalism, media
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• The China story in the international media is not dominated by military conflict or any one obvious single storyline;
• The China story is not generally a “breaking story,” but rather a “process story” about how this complex and geopolitically important country is changing, and what that change means for the rest of the world;
• There is strong demand for specialist insight, information and analysis on a range of subjects;
• Official controls on professional media and public speech in China are strong;
• Many sources are fearful of consequences of speaking directly with foreign journalists;
• Access to on-the-ground or reliable information outside of major cities is often difficult; [Full Text]

Rebecca MacKinnon is co-founder of Global Voices and is currently teaching at Hong Kong University.

(...)
Read the rest of Blogs And Their Value To Foreign Journalists In China — Rebecca MacKinnon (103 words)

© Zhaohua Li for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bloggers, foreign correspondents, media
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Henan TV reporter Fu Zhenzhong tells yWeekend the blow-by-blow of how he launched the Shanxi brick kiln investigation that exploded into a still-raging national controversy.

Fu went undercover for much of the investigation, at one point stripping off his shirt and speaking in a Henan accent to pose as a parent in search of his child. ESWN has the translation:

“Can we take this Henan child with us?” I asked.

“That is unacceptable. I spend 400 yuan to buy him.” The subcontractor and the kiln owner both refused. The kiln owner also got some villagers to surround us. When I saw that things were going badly, I dialed 110 (note: the police).

(...)
Read the rest of Uncovering The Brick Kiln Case: How It Started – Xu Ying (91 words)

© Zhaohua Li for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: corruption, media, Shanxi brick kiln
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