Tag: chinese journalists

  • Why China is skeptical of native journalists working for Western media

    China’s state media have stepped up their assaults on Western media shops previously few weeks.

    The Xinhua information company stated in an English-language report on March 15 that Western media organizations have “recruited a cohort of Chinese media practitioners as pawns to propagate their China-bashing rhetoric.”

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    “The stories have distorted China’s domestic and foreign policies and reinforced the highly biased image of China in the Western world, gravely violating basic professional ethics and eliminating any sense of objectivity,” the report stated.

    Xinhua cited Western media’s studies about China’s preliminary COVID response and the human rights violations in Xinjiang state as examples of Western media’s “smear campaign against China” that may not have been potential with out the assistance from their Chinese workers.

    “Chinese reporters in Western media have also cobbled together ‘evidence’ depicting China’s so-called human rights violations,” the Xinhua report claimed.

    Experts are of the view that the Xinhua article displays a worrying development of finger-pointing at Chinese journalists related to Western media.

    Kecheng Fang, assistant professor of Media and Communications on the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), informed DW that different nationalistic media shops, too, have revealed related studies.

    “Some of these local journalists are now worried about their personal safety as well as the safety of their family members in China,” he informed DW.

    “The Xinhua article criticized them for participating in China-bashing stories, but many of the journalists I have spoken to say they will continue to contribute to the China-related reporting in Western media,” Fang stated, including that they consider their work provides to a greater understanding of China in overseas media.

    ‘Attack from outside’

    According to Western China observers, accusations towards native journalists working for overseas media organizations mirror the general sense of nationalism in China.

    “There is this general atmosphere of protection against the hostile intention of the ‘outside,’” David Bandurski, co-director of the China Media Project, a corporation monitoring the media atmosphere in China, informed DW.

    “There is a renewed push against Chinese people who are seen as colluding. We even see the word ‘hostile forces’ come in. It doesn’t just mean outside forces; it means people inside China who are working with these ‘hostile foreign forces,’” he added.

    Yangyang Cheng, a fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, fears that the development will put Chinese journalists working for overseas media in hurt’s manner.

    “In addition to potential friction with the Chinese state and its security forces, the views expressed in the [Xinhua] article, coming from an official channel, will further legitimize and incentivize harassment and online attacks on these Chinese journalists from Chinese nationalists and their sympathizers,” she informed DW.

    Encouraging ‘witch-hunt’

    A Mandarin-language article revealed by the state-run tabloid Global Times newspaper in February named a number of Chinese journalists who “defected to Western media” and stabbed the Chinese individuals and the nation within the again.

    The article revealed the names, employment histories, and photographs of some Chinese journalists working for overseas media shops, and criticized them for taking part in an element within the alleged Western conspiracy.

    “Originally, cross-culturalism was the outstanding advantage of these people, who could bring a more objective and realistic view of the world and China to Chinese and Western readers with their unique perspectives,” the article stated. “However, they [Chinese journalists] used their reports to pass the knife to the anti-China forces in the West and shoot their compatriots in the back.”

    Chiaoning Su, a journalism professor at Oakland University, says these measures might encourage Chinese nationalists to provoke a witch-hunt towards these journalists.

    “By describing these journalists as ‘traitors’ and denigrating their professionalism and impartiality in the field of journalism, the Chinese government is attempting to clear its name from the misconduct that they have committed,” she informed DW. “They also try to distort press freedom that has been upheld by Western media into an ideological propaganda.”

    Objective China reporting

    Yangyang Cheng from Yale Law School says it’s crucial for overseas media to do extra to guard their Chinese workers and their sources in China.

    Experts agree that the worsening media state of affairs in China is prone to make reporting on the nation much more troublesome for overseas media.

     

    “Authoritarian countries, including China and Russia, are restricting the space for news coverage,” stated Chiaoning Su from Oakland University.

    “As an increasing number of foreign media outlets are forced to leave China due to various reasons, they will face more challenges when it comes to their China reporting,” Su stated, including that it will likely be troublesome for them to realize the belief of the interviewees and to painting a truthful image of the state of affairs within the nation.

  • China, US to ease restrictions on every others journalists

    China and the US have agreed to ease restrictions on one another’s media staff amid a slight leisure of tensions between the 2 sides.
    The official China Daily newspaper on Wednesday mentioned the settlement was reached forward of Tuesday’s digital summit between Chinese chief Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden.
    Under the settlement, the US will concern one-year multiple-entry visas to Chinese media staff and can instantly provoke a course of to handle “duration of status” points, China Daily mentioned. China will reciprocate by granting equal therapy to US journalists as soon as the US insurance policies take impact, and each side will concern media visas for brand spanking new candidates “based on relevant laws and regulations,” the report mentioned.

    In an announcement to The Associated Press late Tuesday, the State Department mentioned China had dedicated to issuing visas for a bunch of US reporters “provided they are eligible under all applicable laws and regulations.”
    “We will also continue issuing visas to (Chinese) journalists who are otherwise eligible for the visa under US law,” the assertion mentioned.
    China additionally dedicated to extend the size for which US media visas are legitimate from the present 90 days to at least one 12 months.
    “On a reciprocal basis, we are committing to increase validity of US visas issued to PRC journalists to one year as well,” the State Department assertion mentioned, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

    Not talked about in both assertion have been press circumstances within the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong, the place each native and worldwide media have come underneath rising strain. The Economist mentioned final week that Hong Kong refused a visa renewal for its correspondent Sue-Lin Wong. Authorities haven’t defined the rejection.
    Limits on media staff have fueled tensions between the 2 nations for greater than a 12 months after the US lower 20 visas issued to Chinese state media staff and required these remaining to register as international brokers, amongst different adjustments.
    China responded by expelling journalists working for US retailers and severely limiting circumstances for these persevering with to work within the nation.
    The new settlement “was the result of more than a year of difficult negotiations over the treatment of media outlets in both countries,” China Daily mentioned.

    “It is hoped that more good news is ahead for the two countries’ media outlets through further China-US cooperation,” the paper added.
    The State Department mentioned it has “remained in close consultation with the affected outlets, as well as other outlets facing personnel shortages due to PRC government policy decisions, and we are gratified their correspondents will be able to return to the PRC to continue their important work. We welcome this progress but see it simply as initial steps.”
    The State Department additionally mentioned it might proceed to work towards expanded entry and higher circumstances for US and international media in China, the place they face appreciable obstacles starting from questioning by police, harassment stopping them from doing their work, private threats and lawsuits introduced by individuals they interview.
    “We will continue to advocate for media freedom as a reflection of our democratic values,” the State Department instructed the AP.

    Asked about Wong’s case, Hong Kong chief Carrie Lam mentioned the issuing of visas is on the “autonomy and the discretion of any government.” Lam added that the authorities don’t touch upon particular person circumstances however will proceed to facilitate the operation of abroad media primarily based in Hong Kong “in a legitimate manner” in response to town’s mini-constitution, generally known as the Basic Law.
    The metropolis’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club mentioned it was “deeply concerned” over the denial of Wong’s employment visa.
    “We again call on the government to provide concrete assurances that applications for employment visas and visa extensions will be handled in a timely manner with clearly-stated requirements and procedures, and that the visa process for journalists will not be politicized or weaponized,” the membership mentioned in an announcement final week.

    Wong is the most recent in a string of journalists in Hong Kong to be denied a visa.
    In 2018, Hong Kong authorities refused to resume the work visa of Financial Times’ senior editor Victor Mallet after he chaired a lunchtime speak on the metropolis’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club with the chief of a now-banned pro-Hong Kong independence occasion. Authorities didn’t say why Mallet’s software was rejected.
    In 2020, Hong Kong additionally didn’t renew a piece visa for Chris Buckley, a New York Times reporter who had been working in Hong Kong after being expelled from China, in addition to for Irish journalist Aaron Mc Nicholas, who was then an incoming editor for the impartial media outlet Hong Kong Free Press.