In the shadow of censorship
By Elizabeth Ann Peer Posted Dec 1 2008
CHAU NGUYEN/ Global Journalist
As I was about to leave China, my thoughts drifting toward the West, I was jolted back to reality in the departures area of the Beijing Capital Airport.
A man approached me speaking what I thought was Mandarin. I caught the word “Olympics,” then I saw him pointing at the Beijing 2008 jacket I wore. It seemed as though he wanted it as a souvenir.
I was one of 60 Missouri School of Journalism interns who had worked as volunteers at the Olympics and still had some centennial pins left that were given to us to share, so I handed him one. He gave me a slight nod in acknowledgement, handed me two tightly folded pieces of paper and promptly left. Still not comprehending the reason for our exchange, I started to read the documents. I soon learned why he kept them hidden.
They contained statements in English that claimed that this man, Ben, and his fiancée had suffered mistreatment at the hands of his employers, who were also members of the Chinese Communist Party. The documents told this story: Ben learned about the widespread corruption of his fellow employees that included misuse of public funds and illegal promotions. Soon after his discovery, he encountered a number of difficulties. Ben was charged with raping his fiancée, and subsequent legal interventions prevented their marriage. He was also denied membership to the Chinese Communist Party, which effectively prevented him from seeking employment in the public sector.
When Ben handed me these papers, he couldn’t have known I was a journalist. He just knew I was not Chinese and thought I could get this information out of the country and into the right hands.
As I thought about the possibility of a story, the reality of his situation hit home. How could I validate it, how could I know if any of what he claimed was true? His employers might never acknowledge such charges, and the government would likely remain close-lipped. In China, it is not uncommon to receive such a response.
I knew the environment I was entering this summer was intolerant of rebellious journalists, and of dissenters of any kind, for that matter.
My work at Global Journalist definitely contributed to this awareness. Covering the Chinese press for two issues last semester gave me a clearer picture of the difficulties foreign correspondents face every day and of those that journalists would face during the Beijing Olympics. I didn’t realize, however, how quickly I would come face to face with such censorship.
During the first week of our stay in Beijing, Missouri students got a closer look at the current state of Chinese media. We heard lectures given by Renmin University’s journalism faculty. We then visited two print media outlets — the People’s Daily and Beijing Youth Daily.
The People’s Daily is considered the Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece. The Beijing Youth Daily, published by the Chinese Communist Youth League, appeals to both youth and the general public.
At both of these outlets, we only got the official line about subjects the government thought appropriate for journalists to discuss. To get real information, I had to go to the source — the journalists themselves.
Anthony Cheng, who works for Al-Jazeera English in its Beijing bureau, and Jia-Jing Liu, a college friend and former intern at Caijing, a business magazine, provided firsthand accounts of covering stories normally considered untouchable by government-owned Chinese media.
Cheng first worked for the BBC when he arrived in Beijing seven years ago. He says the problem isn't a lack of story ideas; it's that he lacks access to the official sources he needs. Any unofficial source who talks to him is at risk for retaliation.
Furthermore, he says it is not uncommon for him or his crew to be arrested weekly when they are covering issues outside the capital.
During the end of my stay, Cheng interviewed two “rebellious” elderly Chinese women who had become the center of international news. They were sentenced to a year-long stay at a labor re-education camp for protesting the government’s refusal to compensate them after replacing their homes with luxury apartments. I watched his video segment on YouTube. When I attempted to blog about it three days later, the video was gone.
Liu’s experience with Chinese journalists has been positive. She said the journalists in China are some of the best and most dedicated she has ever worked with, even in the face of the Chinese dictatorship. The media opportunities are booming — she even suggested I consider a job here when the English-language magazine industry is more developed.
While some form of censorship still pervades much of the Chinese press, the media environment continues to evolve. China’s economic boom and subsequent increase in media opportunities might force the government to address the challenges with the industry in the near future.
All in all, I have come away from my time in China with a great appreciation for the freedoms I have as an American journalist and perhaps an even greater admiration for those who push the envelope despite the odds stacked against them.