You can try to take so many photos of China but the angles of your cameras hardly allow you to get the whole picture, just as China cannot be represented within the framework of a photo or a text, like this one.
Chinese media through the eyes of a group of foreign media people is the focus of this presentation.
In China media is still controlled by government.
State owned media is indeed different from government owned.
In other systems state owned media doesn’t necessarily mean government control.
In China, the first way of control is through the selection of the Directors of CCTV and CRI which are decisions taken by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT). The second control refers to the contents that need the permission of SARFT to be broadcasted. Nothing goes on air without the approval of SARFT.
Even for content interchange, the journalists, the editors, the directors of the media seem to have a very limited decision power. Deputy Director of CCTV 9, Cao Ri said that they are only responsible for the content making and if there is interest in receiving the signal or to buy any program, CCTV hasn’t got the rights to make any agreement as the only interlocutor is the administration.
When the foreign journalists asked about the reasons for this control, some Chinese journalists and government officials said it was meant to avoid chaos while trying to manage such a population as huge as 1.6 billion.
Is avoiding chaos enough reason for this control? It’s a matter of discussion and opinion. Cao Ri asked himself and the audience what would happen if George W. Bush had this amount of people in his country.
Indeed, all societies have ways of controlling to preserve the order. Just as an example, in the South cone of South America, there is still a lot of self-censorship as a consequence of years of right wing dictatorships.
One can understand the reasons of control in China: keep the order and avoid chaos.
However, it is still not known how this control is implemented in China and on what it is based.
Ø Which are SARFT’s criteria?
Ø Which are the laws that guide this control?
Ø Is there an unwritten law?
Such questions couldn’t find answers from the SARFT’s officials.
According to Cao Ri, Deputy Director of CCTV 9, he never read such laws.
Technology and control
In China there has been great development in media technology since the opening in 1978. This advanced technology seen in the media seems to provide a very comfortable context for the journalists.
This development of technology, which also improved the monitoring process, has opened up their ways of growing and Internet appeared in the scene limiting the possibilities of control.
The question behind this might be: does technology development make control strategies useless? The technological evolution (with web 2.0 for instance) is leading to a non controlling system where news can be published in the web with no filter.
The SARFT authorities are aware that there is a need of adapting to times. Zuh Hong, Director of Administration Office and Spokesman of SARFT put the example of the man who reported a plane accident from the country and when it was broadcasted to the world, the world thought it was a second accident, because it took three days to go through the Chinese bureaucratic system before being released.
Internet is a leak in the control system that can not be fixed by any government.
How longer can this continue, especially considering the new Chinese audiences who can access internet and who can speak English?
In China, there is more access to Internet in the English language than in Chinese.
What will happen when this young people grow up and become the main audience?
During this seminar it was noticed that Chinese people working in the media are aware of the weaknesses of their media system and this might be the most important indication of an open minded situation.
Cai Guofen, from the Communication University of China, said that innovation and advancing with the times are necessary and that journalism needs to be improved. That’s why the Chinese teachers are doing research to acquire a better understanding of the doctrine and the principles of journalism.
Building the news, building the truth
Following Cai Guofen’s presentation, the truth appears as the main objective of the journalist work: “if there is no truth, the information has no value” was one of her remarks. She also supported the idea that Chinese journalists look for the truth within the Marxism Leninism doctrine because all the journalists follow these ideas.
From outside it seems a bit of a generalization or is it that we need a deeper knowledge of China to understand this approach?
This intent of getting nearer the truth was also reflected by Cao Ri, Deputy Director of CCTV 9 who said that the opening process takes time, that they are trying to make news better and show the real China but at the same time –he said- we have to understand that news in China have their own criteria and cannot be judged from outside.
His example was the birth control policy which is said to be a threat to human rights by foreign journalists.
However, for Chinese people, this policy is necessary, and one has to live in China to understand the importance of this birth control policy.
Similar position is supported by Guan Juanjuan, Deputy Director of the English Service of China Radio International, who criticized most of the correspondents sent to China as they report about this country according to their already designed framework.
During her presentation, Guan Juanjuan weighed both sides of journalism in China which is very encouraging. This indicates free expression, at least to a certain extent.
She talked about Tibet and didn’t want to give an opinion about it because she has never been there. She stated that most western journalists’ reports about Tibet are biased.
Agreeing with her opinion a foreign journalist might try hard to understand China in depth to avoid short sighted reports. A journalist needs to be open minded and stay a long time in China to fully understand Chinese media in its own context.
In any case, this seminar is an opportunity for foreign media not only to report about China, but also to work with Chinese media and this will help us to understand China in depth.
Chinese media through the eyes of a group of foreign media people is the focus of this presentation.
In China media is still controlled by government.
State owned media is indeed different from government owned.
In other systems state owned media doesn’t necessarily mean government control.
In China, the first way of control is through the selection of the Directors of CCTV and CRI which are decisions taken by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT). The second control refers to the contents that need the permission of SARFT to be broadcasted. Nothing goes on air without the approval of SARFT.
Even for content interchange, the journalists, the editors, the directors of the media seem to have a very limited decision power. Deputy Director of CCTV 9, Cao Ri said that they are only responsible for the content making and if there is interest in receiving the signal or to buy any program, CCTV hasn’t got the rights to make any agreement as the only interlocutor is the administration.
When the foreign journalists asked about the reasons for this control, some Chinese journalists and government officials said it was meant to avoid chaos while trying to manage such a population as huge as 1.6 billion.
Is avoiding chaos enough reason for this control? It’s a matter of discussion and opinion. Cao Ri asked himself and the audience what would happen if George W. Bush had this amount of people in his country.
Indeed, all societies have ways of controlling to preserve the order. Just as an example, in the South cone of South America, there is still a lot of self-censorship as a consequence of years of right wing dictatorships.
One can understand the reasons of control in China: keep the order and avoid chaos.
However, it is still not known how this control is implemented in China and on what it is based.
Ø Which are SARFT’s criteria?
Ø Which are the laws that guide this control?
Ø Is there an unwritten law?
Such questions couldn’t find answers from the SARFT’s officials.
According to Cao Ri, Deputy Director of CCTV 9, he never read such laws.
Technology and control
In China there has been great development in media technology since the opening in 1978. This advanced technology seen in the media seems to provide a very comfortable context for the journalists.
This development of technology, which also improved the monitoring process, has opened up their ways of growing and Internet appeared in the scene limiting the possibilities of control.
The question behind this might be: does technology development make control strategies useless? The technological evolution (with web 2.0 for instance) is leading to a non controlling system where news can be published in the web with no filter.
The SARFT authorities are aware that there is a need of adapting to times. Zuh Hong, Director of Administration Office and Spokesman of SARFT put the example of the man who reported a plane accident from the country and when it was broadcasted to the world, the world thought it was a second accident, because it took three days to go through the Chinese bureaucratic system before being released.
Internet is a leak in the control system that can not be fixed by any government.
How longer can this continue, especially considering the new Chinese audiences who can access internet and who can speak English?
In China, there is more access to Internet in the English language than in Chinese.
What will happen when this young people grow up and become the main audience?
During this seminar it was noticed that Chinese people working in the media are aware of the weaknesses of their media system and this might be the most important indication of an open minded situation.
Cai Guofen, from the Communication University of China, said that innovation and advancing with the times are necessary and that journalism needs to be improved. That’s why the Chinese teachers are doing research to acquire a better understanding of the doctrine and the principles of journalism.
Building the news, building the truth
Following Cai Guofen’s presentation, the truth appears as the main objective of the journalist work: “if there is no truth, the information has no value” was one of her remarks. She also supported the idea that Chinese journalists look for the truth within the Marxism Leninism doctrine because all the journalists follow these ideas.
From outside it seems a bit of a generalization or is it that we need a deeper knowledge of China to understand this approach?
This intent of getting nearer the truth was also reflected by Cao Ri, Deputy Director of CCTV 9 who said that the opening process takes time, that they are trying to make news better and show the real China but at the same time –he said- we have to understand that news in China have their own criteria and cannot be judged from outside.
His example was the birth control policy which is said to be a threat to human rights by foreign journalists.
However, for Chinese people, this policy is necessary, and one has to live in China to understand the importance of this birth control policy.
Similar position is supported by Guan Juanjuan, Deputy Director of the English Service of China Radio International, who criticized most of the correspondents sent to China as they report about this country according to their already designed framework.
During her presentation, Guan Juanjuan weighed both sides of journalism in China which is very encouraging. This indicates free expression, at least to a certain extent.
She talked about Tibet and didn’t want to give an opinion about it because she has never been there. She stated that most western journalists’ reports about Tibet are biased.
Agreeing with her opinion a foreign journalist might try hard to understand China in depth to avoid short sighted reports. A journalist needs to be open minded and stay a long time in China to fully understand Chinese media in its own context.
In any case, this seminar is an opportunity for foreign media not only to report about China, but also to work with Chinese media and this will help us to understand China in depth.
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