Al Jazeera English reported on May 8 that China has refused to renew its correspondent’s press credentials and visa.

Melissa Chan has been AJE’s China correspondent since 2007, but the news organization has been forced to close its bureau in Beijing.

Salah Negm, director of news at Al Jazeera English, said AJE is “committed to our coverage of China. Just as China news services cover the world freely we would expect that same freedom in China for any Al Jazeera journalist.”

Kudos to an Australian news team that decided to confront members of the Chinese security forces who where shadowing the journalists.

Chinese “minders” filmed by news crew

Russia signs anti-bribery accord, but still shackles best method to fight corruption: free and independent media.

Russia, corruption and press freedom

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World

These reports on PBS NewsHour are some of the best stories I have seen about how the Chinese censorship machine work.

Chinese Artist, Activist Ai Weiwei Arrested

China’s Tolerance for Dissent Tested Amid Arab World Uprisings

The first FOI law in Malaysia passed in Selangor state. The Center for Independent Journalism Malaysia said the national government should follow suit.

Selangor Passes FOI Bill; First in Malaysia

The legislation included a number of improvement the Center said. Among the positive changes are:

1. Acknowledgment of the right to information, rather than an opportunity given by the state
2. An obligation to reveal information
3. Possibility of review by the courts
4. A more independent State Information Board (to replace the Appeals Board)
5. A narrower list of exemptions, with a public interest override
6. Protection from prosecution, sanctions, suit etc for Information Officers or government officers who disclose information in good faith
7. 20-year time limit for keeping information confidential.

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World

The Olympics are over. The World Fair has closed. Therefore, no more reasons to allow for relaxing the rules on speech and press in China.

In recent weeks the Chinese government has taken off the velvet glove to reveal the iron fist of censorship.

• First all mention of Egypt and Mubarak were blocked from microblogs and other web sites.
• Then the term “Jasmine” caught the censors’ eyes.
• Directives were sent out about what was and wasn’t allowed in the Chinese media.
• And now the hordes of Chinese censors are hard at work making sure no one talks about protests or other things that could destabilize Chinese society.

The New York Times reported yesterday that censors are apparently listening in on more mobile phone conversations. (China Tightens Censorship of Electronic Communications). The censors use their authority to cut off the connections when “improper” terms are spoken or typed.

The results are predictable:

A Beijing entrepreneur, discussing restaurant choices with his fiancée over their cellphones last week, quoted Queen Gertrude’s response to Hamlet: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” The second time he said the word “protest,” her phone cut off.

He spoke English, but another caller, repeating the same phrase on Monday in Chinese over a different phone, was also cut off in midsentence.

Then there is the episode feminist, sociologist and sexologist Li Yinhe had with the nanny state.

Yesterday, I found myself suddenly unable to send emails, but had no problem receiving emails. After looking through my email settings multiple times, I could find absolutely nothing wrong and as a last resort, I decided to call up the 263.com customer service. On the other end of the call was a polite male voice, who requested that I give him the error number, which I did. The troubleshooting took no time. He asked, “Can you see if your email has the following three English letters — ‘s’, ‘e’ and ‘x’?” I was flabbergasted beyond words. This was a business email discussing the publishing of the works of renowned German sexologist Erwin J. Haeberle in China — of course there was the word “sex” in it. Be that as it may, we finally spotted the reason, and I was able to send the email as soon as the word “sex” was deleted from the email.

And let us not forget that the battle between Google and the Chinese government is still going on. The most recent example came this week in an attack against Gmail users. (Google Says China Is Hindering Gmail)

Google says that Gmail users in China have been reporting difficulties using Gmail and that it has checked its systems and found no problems. “There is no technical issue on our side; we have checked extensively,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail.”

And so the battle continues.

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World

I will repeat it again for those who have not heard it the first several hundred times: When the media are controlled by the government the people trust rumors more than the official reports. This leads to instability in society.

The latest example of how China’s policy of controlled media leads to social instability comes from a report by the L.A. Times on salt sales in China.

Japan radiation fears spark panic salt-buying in China

Because the media are controlled in China and limited about what it can say (all in the name of ensuring stability), people tend to not believe what is aired/printed. They, instead, prefer to believe whatever fanciful rumor gets passed around by SMS or word of mouth.

Let’s look at the latest round:

1. Rumors a radioactive cloud from Japan’s quake-damaged nuclear plant will reach China. (FACT: The prevailing winds are taking whatever small radioactive clouds AWAY from China.)
2. Iodized salt will protect against radiation poisoning. (FACT: False.)
3. China’s sea salt supplies will be contaminated because of the damaged power plants. (FACT: No way.)

The salt issue took on major proportions. Besides the concerns about the Japanese power plants causing the problem, rumors circulated that an earthquake in Taiwan was going to disrupt the salt supply.

1. There was no earthquake in Taiwan, and
2. No one could explain how an earthquake in Taiwan would affect China’s salt supplies.

According to the L.A. Times story

In a scene repeated across the country, online video from the eastern city of Wenzhou showed panicked shoppers filling their baskets with tubs of salt and street vendors complaining about being cleaned out.

To restore “stability,” the Chinese government had to go into information overdrive. The problem is that no one believed the government’s statements.

Chinese authorities have tried to quash the rumors, explaining that the country has massive reserves and that 80% of its salt sources were on land.

Thousands of television screens on Beijing’s subway cars displayed a public service announcement Thursday that said: “The local salt bureau has stated that there’s an adequate supply of salt. Salt is a special product that is controlled by the government. Supply is greater than demand.”

Think about how much money and time was wasted explaining something that could have been prevented if the people had a reliable source of information. Such as independent and free news organizations.

The ruling Communist Party in China says it must control the media to ensure stability. That the people cannot properly deal with information that is not carefully vetted and cleared for “the public good.”

Without independent media poking and probing the public has nothing to rely on but rumors. This latest episode shows once again that the policy of controlling the news is more destabilizing than allowing for competing news organizations to freely and openly investigate and issue and expose the truth.

(BTW, I understand that even with competing and free news media, there will always be a group of people who believe the fantastic over facts. Just look at all the Americans who still question the birth location and religious beliefs of Pres. Obama despite all the facts that have been presented. But at least the facts are available and confirmed for anyone who wants to know.)

Hagit Limor, president of the Society of Professional Journalists, is currently traveling in Japan and was in the country when the earthquake and tsunami struck on Friday, March 11.

I contacted Hagit through Twitter on Saturday night (Sunday morning in Japan) and set up an e-mail interview. I received her answers Sunday morning around 9:30 AM Central  (11:30 PM Japan).

Q. What’s happening there, and what are you learning about this disaster?

A. It’s become a nightmare times three – first the earthquake, then the tsunami and now the continuing nuclear threat. In many places there’s still no power and the rest of the nation is cutting back power usage to preserve what there is. Journalistically, news coverage is 24/7, much as we experienced in the first days after 9/11 and to a lesser degree, Katrina. We’re seeing images you may be seeing too of the hardest hit areas that have been pulverized. Even out of that zone, some gas stations have run out and shut down, and supermarket shelves are bare. The aftershocks are continuing every day and the biggest worry now comes from those nuclear plants where the chief cabinet secretary of Japan just said he expects another explosion.

Q. What can you tell us about the mood of the people you’re interacting with?

A. People are glued to TV’s and smartphones, getting the latest information. The government’s offered a continuous series of updates from the prime minister, nuclear officials and others, so no one wants to miss the latest live details. People in Japan are well-mannered, soft-spoken and kind so even in the first hours, they masked their fears well in stoic fashion. Everyone got on their cell phones to make sure family members up north were ok, but cell service was very spotty so it took some people a while to get confirmation. Now, there’s worry and an immediate drive to help the hardest hit areas, with donation jars popping up. They’re intent to rebuild as they did after Hiroshima and Nagasaki but right now they’re still just hoping to find survivors.

Q. You were in Japan during the earthquake. Where were you, and what was your experience?

A. I was at Kadena Air Force Base in Naha City, Okinawa, having just flown in late that morning from Tokyo. Kadena has air force, navy, army and marines, many trained in search and rescue. We were getting briefed by commanders in each of the service branches when the quake and first aftershocks hit. They jumped on cell phones and I followed them to the hall and overheard as they started coordinating massive evacuations from Okinawa’s beachfronts. One of the captains also put me in touch with an oceanographer on the base who was tracking the seismic activity. We were watching in real time as the tsunami was still out to sea and approaching, which was surreal. We had a two hour head’s up in Okinawa so it hadn’t arrived yet when we left the base for a previously scheduled meeting with the state’s disaster chief. I could have understood if he’d canceled but he still met with us and I was able to get the first casualty report, which I reported minutes later on my station, in the first of 50 or so reports to my entire station group, C-SPAN, and a national radio show based at WGN in Chicago. I was also posting on Facebook, tweeting and writing a web script incorporating the information from the military sources and the disaster chief.

Q. Are you in Japan for SPJ, and if so, what’s the purpose for your trip there?

A. I’m in Japan on a journalists’ exchange representing the Society. It’s an East-West Center fellowship. We are being escorted by NSK, Japan’s national organization representing journalists. We’ve been meeting with reporters and editors all over the country, as well as business, political and military leaders. I often speak at conferences about the need to make sure you learn new skill sets to do your job in this day. This experience made that ultimately clear. Five years ago I couldn’t have reported nearly as effectively. Between Skype, Twitter and Facebook I could jump in from another continent and provide my company with valuable coverage. It was a case of preparation meeting opportunity.

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said today it is ”appalled by the attack on one of our members by men who appeared to be plain clothes security officers in Beijing.”

Other journalists who went to the same part of Beijing to do their jobs had problems with the police, including being manhandled, pushed, detained and delayed.

Full Statement.

The actions against the journalists came as they tried to cover planned demonstrations organized under the “Jasmine Revolution” banner. The government was so worried about the demonstrations that the police put on a major show of force.

In addition to the heavy police presence, street cleaning vehicles and men with brooms swept back and forth along the designated streets in Beijing and Shanghai, preventing pedestrians from slowing down. A construction site appeared on Wangfujing earlier this week, blocking off a stretch outside the hamburger bar.

Associated Press reported that Shanghai police used whistles to disperse a crowd of around 200, although it was unclear if the people were anything more than onlookers. It said officers detained at least four Chinese citizens in the city and two others in Beijing. It was not clear, however, if those detained had tried to protest.

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World

The calls for weekly “Jasmine Revolutions” in China have the security forces on edge. And it makes life difficult for journalists trying to cover the events.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China issued a statement giving the journalists some tips.

Many correspondents in Beijing have gotten calls with warnings about reporting in the vicinity of Wangfujing this weekend, ranging from friendly reminders about reporting regulations to specific warnings. The FCCC strongly urges everyone to carry all necessary press credentials and passports, to avoid being provoked into confrontations, and to avoid in any way endangering Chinese assistants.

And then it gets interesting:

Some correspondents have been told to register at a Wangfujing district office for permission to report there. This office does not appear to have a listed number and the PSB  [Public Security Bureau] was unable to provide one to correspondents who asked.

The public office where  reporters need to register to report in the area has an unlisted number.

The FCCC is concerned about and monitoring arbitrary interpretation of the reporting regulations. Please inform us if you are blocked from reporting in public space. China’s reporting regulations, which took effect in Oct. 2008, state: “To interview organizations or individuals in China, foreign journalists need only to obtain their prior consent.”

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World

Thanks to China Digital News for the latest update on directives about what media are and are not allowed to run.

Here are some samples. And you will notice, that with each of these items, there is nothing that says the information is false. The central authorities just don’t want the information to get out.

You sure don’t want anyone to know that maybe a party picked candidate is not qualified.

Candidates for Representative at People’s Congress

February 21, 2011

From the State Council Information Office: Please delete all posts related to the item “Candidates for Representative at the People’s Congress Have No Legal Standing” found on any website or interactive space, including micro-blogs, blogs, online forums, breaking news services, and text messages.

The last thing a central government concerned with “stability” wants is any discussion of higher fuel costs.

Fuel Price Increases

February 19, 2011

From the State Council Information Office: For news on the fuel price increases issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, all websites are requested to close commentaries and news postings. Delete all related discussions on platforms such as micro-blogs, blogs, online forums, instant message services, and text messages.

I’m not sure what “leather milk” is but it sure upsets the central censors.

“Leather Milk”

February 18, 2011

From the State Council Information Office: Please immediately remove all news related to “leather milk” from the front pages of websites. Interactive spaces such as online forums, blogs, micro-blogs, and text messages are forbidden from hyping and discussing this incident.

And my favorite that many in the U.S. would like to see implemented in the States. (But that pesky First Amendment keeps getting in the way.)

WikiLeaks

February 17, 2011

From the State Council Information Office: It is not permitted in any form to repost or report information related to the distorted reports and malicious hype found on WikiLeaks that implicate the diplomacy, exchange reserves and investments, and other sensitive problems. All on-line interactive spaces are to thoroughly search out this type of information and immediately delete it.

Again, note that there is nothing in the “orders” that imply or state flat out that any of the information is false or misleading. The only thing the government wants is for no one in China to hear about these things.

Oh, and “jasmine” continues to be blocked by the Internet censors.