Аннотация
The New Year's Day of 2007 saw only a few foreign journalists in Tian'anmen
Square, a place where many of them used to interview Chinese on wishes
for the coming year.
Some journalists chose to travel to other parts of China for more
important news, thanks to China's new regulations granting foreign
journalists more freedom that came into effect on Monday.
Reuters datelined a story "HOHHOT" on Monday, becoming the first foreign
media to report in other Chinese cities besides Beijing and Shanghai
without application to authorities.
The Reuters report said "foreign journalists had needed government
permission to report outside their home base -- usually Beijing or
Shanghai -- but under the new rules, which came into force on Monday,
they need only the agreement of the person they are interviewing."
To interview organizations or individuals in China, foreign journalists
need only to obtain their consent, according to the "Regulations
on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists during the
Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period."
The new regulations also allow foreign journalists to hire Chinese
citizens through organizations providing services to foreign nationals
to assist them in their reporting activities, while relaxing other
restrictions.
Observers agree that foreign journalists now enjoy more freedom in
reporting on China.
Foreign media reacted instantly to the new regulations. The National
Broadcasting Co. (NBC) of the United States decided to send journalists
to China; The Associated Press planned to hire Chinese to enhance
its China reports; The number of New York Times journalists in China
rose to five, making its Chinese office the biggest one in Asia.
Benjamin Lim with Reuters, who has been in China for ten years, told
Xinhua that he interviewed a person on Monday without the application
process as before, which he said was really a step forward.
Lim had wanted to interview the person and applied in 2004. However,
the interview was not conducted until Monday due to complicated application
process.
At the end of December 2006, there were 606 resident journalists from
319 foreign news organizations of 49 countries in China. They were
usually based in Beijing and Shanghai, according to statistics from
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
About 3,000 to 5,000 foreign journalists came to China annually in
recent years for short-term assignments.
The effect of the new foreign media regulations are yet to be clear
and some journalists are testing.
Benjamin Lim said some of his friends chose to report on village democracy
and other topics in three cities after the foreign media regulations
became effective. He was not clear about the development of their
job.
However, one journalist was banned from an interview in an east China
city by local officials who said, "Sorry we do not know about the
regulations at the moment."
Ben Blanchard, writer of the Reuters story datelined "HOHHOT" on Monday,
met no trouble in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. He said he would
continue to work there until Wednesday.
Reuters is not the only foreign media that plans to conduct interviews
in other parts of China besides Beijing and Shanghai. Takanori Kato,
Shanghai bureau chief of Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, said although Beijing
and Shanghai are political and economical hubs of China, interviews
in other places are still needed to know a whole China.
In the past, he had to do interviews by telephone when something happened
outside Beijing and Shanghai as it would have taken at least several
days to get official approval to go there.
The new regulations will enable Takanori Kato to travel instantly
for news, and ällow the world know quickly what is happening in
China," the Japanese journalist said.
Zhang Yongheng, a journalist with the Chinese newspaper People's Daily,
said he could feel the pressure and competition since he would see
foreign counterparts on the occasions that used to be witnessed only
by Chinese journalists before the new foreign media regulations.
China has grown to be the world's fourth largest economy and foreign
coverage of China has risen sharply in 2006, said China's top publicity
official Cai Wu. The coverage by certain media jumped by 30 percent
or 40 percent.
Liu Jianchao, director of the Information Department of Chinese Foreign
Ministry, said foreign journalists would enjoy more and more freedom
in China, as well as better and better working environment.
Описание
May08
Линки и ресурсы
тэги