Freedom of expression

China’s heavy handed approach to the media and censorship will be the focus of this year’s world press freedom day, says Aidan White

For the first time, the annual global celebration of worldpress freedom – on May 3 – will have as its focus the battles now raging tobreak down the great walls of censorship and ideology that stifle free speechand journalism in China.There is a lot at stake in the region and beyond. In Hong Kong, the media community hopes to end its status as an isolatedoutpost of democracy. In Africa, where Chinahas become a major player in media development, and in Europe, journalists wantto establish more independent links with their counterparts in Beijing.

In Taiwan journalists are looking for signs of a new toleranceand, not least, an end to a China-inspired ban by United Nations officials onjournalists from Taipei covering the annual world health assembly of the worldhealth organisation. Earlier this year, European parliament vice-presidentEdward McMillan-Scott asked the EU to urge the UN to revoke its ban onTaiwanese journalists covering the WHA, while last year, 31 Taiwanese mediaorganisations protested to the UN and WHO. My organisation, which has 500,000members in over 100 countries, recently issued a new call for the UN to liftits four-year ban on Taiwanese journalists from reporting from next month’sWHA, accusing the UN of undermining the role of journalism in global campaignsfor public health.

Several other international press associations have alsoexpressed their support by protesting the UN’s unfair treatment of Taiwan. The UNis allowing itself to be bullied by China and in the process ischipping away at the values it was created to protect. Taiwanese journalistsshould be given accreditation like hundreds of other media people who will becovering the WHA annual assembly, which will open in Geneva on 19 May. It is incomprehensible thatbureaucratic obstacles should be used to deny journalists from Taiwan accessto the forum that will consider the universal need for protection against risksof spreading disease. Access should be granted in line with article 19 of theUN’s own universal declaration of human rights that highlights the “freedom to… seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media andregardless of frontiers”. International disputes over Chinese nationalsovereignty and territory should not limit the rights of journalists to gatherinformation. They are not engaged in politics and should not sufferdiscrimination in this way. Freedom to gather news should not be sacrificed onthe altar of political disputes whether or not Chinasuppresses or attempts to suppress Taiwan.

On April 13, a delegation of journalist leaders from Africa,Europe and Asia flew to Beijingfor crisis meetings with the Chinese government and media chiefs about thedeteriorating conditions facing journalists. The mission came as controversyover Tibet, violentdemonstrations on the streets of Europe, andtalk of boycotts in Western capitals threatens to derail this year’s OlympicGames. The preparation of the Olympic Games had, until a few weeks ago, been amasterpiece of political choreography and public relations.

At the time Beijingwas awarded the right to host the games, it made a solemn promise to theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) to stop repressing Chinese journalistsand to open its doors to foreign media. It was always going to be a long-shot,because freedom of the press in China,where 29 journalists are in prison, is one game the government in Beijing plays on its ownuncompromising terms.

The delegation of nine journalists from the InternationalFederation of Journalists – which includes representatives from Germany, Denmark,Greece and Sweden – soughtassurances from the Chinese Olympic committee and government officials that theoriginal plans for an easing of media restrictions would go ahead. But it isuncertain how the Chinese will react. In the wake of growing anger overcoverage of its internal protests in the foreign press, the atmosphere haschanged. Foreign journalists based in Chinaare being targeted and abused on Chinese websites in a wave of anti-foreignerhostility, says the foreign correspondents club in Beijing.

The problem is that journalists are in the front line of apolitical argument in which media are not innocent bystanders. China’scommunist leaders are profoundly cynical about western media attachment tohuman rights. In a country where government is rumoured to have thousands ofemployees monitoring information entering and leaving the country, few peoplewere surprised by a report recently released by Amnesty International whichfinds that Chinahas fallen well short of its pledge to provide unrestricted internet accessleading up to the Olympics. Instead, Beijingis tightening its grip on the flow of information. YouTube, BBC, CNN and YahooNews websites and the fact-site Wikipedia have been regularly inaccessible andmore government intervention is feared as the opening ceremony nears.

When May 3 comes this year I shall be celebrating in HongKong and talking to local journalists about the longer-term prospects for pressfreedom in China.It’s already evident that the Olympics will not deliver the dream of a new eraof openness, but this is a long game and change is on the way.