An organized trip to Tibet
This just in: The Chinese Foreign Ministry has picked a select group of foreign correspondents to travel to Tibet Wednesday to see the damage done during violent protests March 14.
I heard about this a few hours ago, and am told that reporters from the Asian Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Al Jazeera TV, Kyodo News, Associated Press Television News, a Taiwanese television channel and a couple of others were invited to go.
I called our senior Foreign Ministry contact, Mr. Tang Rui, to ask whether I could go. His response: “Who told you about it?” I said a journalistic colleague. He told me to send a fax. Later, someone at the International Press Center said we could send a fax but quickly appraised my chances of a spot on the trip: “No way.”
So there you have it. Like most aspects of this unfolding story of unrest in Tibet, the Foreign Ministry is keeping a strong hand on how it plays in the media and who tells the story. Interesting that Chinese diplomats want two international newspapers with a financial focus to get first dibs.
I'M REPORTING FROM BEHIND ENEMY LINES. The OPPRESSION OF THE TIBETAN PEOPLE IS BEYOND
COMPARE. FOR GOD'S SAKE, HELP US !
The authorities, out of FRUSTRATION, are
blaming the totally innocent Dalai Lama.
Read my stuff >> MOST NON-VIOLENT DEFENSE
PLAN TO DISARM CHINESE ARMY !
http://intelligenceinputs.blogspot.com
http://futureweapons.blogdrive.com
WE HAVE FAITH IN GOD, WHICH OUR RULERS HAVE NOT.
AND FAITH IN DALAI LAMA......
WHOSE EVER-PRESENT SMILE IS STRONGER THAN 1 MILLION STRONG CHINESE ARMY MEN.
Posted by: Dying but Smiling Monk | March 25, 2008 at 07:25 AM
I'M REPORTING FROM BEHIND ENEMY LINES. The OPPRESSION OF THE TIBETAN PEOPLE IS BEYOND
COMPARE. FOR GOD'S SAKE, HELP US !
The authorities, out of FRUSTRATION, are
blaming the totally innocent Dalai Lama.
Read my stuff >> MOST NON-VIOLENT DEFENSE
PLAN TO DISARM CHINESE ARMY !
http://intelligenceinputs.blogspot.com
http://futureweapons.blogdrive.com
WE HAVE FAITH IN GOD, WHICH OUR RULERS HAVE NOT.
AND FAITH IN DALAI LAMA......
WHOSE EVER-PRESENT SMILE IS STRONGER THAN 1 MILLION STRONG CHINESE ARMY MEN.
Posted by: Dying but Smiling Monk | March 25, 2008 at 07:27 AM
OK, be fair.
Ask them to include you in a subsequent trip that have a different focus.
You can act lawfully but that does not preclude pushing the envelope a bit.
Posted by: A B | March 25, 2008 at 09:27 AM
Sorry TJ that TAR is off-limits to you (non-financial = riff-raff). Since you will be staying put in Beijing, you can focus on your little game of "Divice-and-Rule-the-Hans-Tibetans-Muslims-Everybody-in-China". PULEEZE update photos of your curious (VERY curious)Assistant: Has she learnt the Lesson of Proper DRESS CODE yet!?
Posted by: bemis | March 25, 2008 at 09:31 AM
And don't forget a Taiwanese paper (probably the most China friendly one in that independent, vastly superior to China nation) to paint the best possible picture of how the loving CCP is carefully handling the whole situation.
Posted by: nanheyangrouchuan | March 25, 2008 at 12:14 PM
Tim, with all due respect (and I truly mean that because I know you do a superlative job in covering China), but if I had to pick two Western newspapers (NOT reporters) to provide fair coverage of China (or just about anything else for that matter), I would pick the WSJ and the FT.
Posted by: China Law Blog | March 25, 2008 at 01:58 PM
Among hundreds of news articles I read in western media about the Tibetan riots, WSJ is the first newspaper that ever reported the human tragedy of those innocent civilians killed by the rioters and how their families are affected. The whole western world, at least as shown by the western media, has gone mad. Got the story upside down, riots called "protests", restoring order called "crackdown". Where is human rights for those who lost lives and properties during 3/14 riot in Lhasa ? Western world is in fast decline because hypocrites rule. China will emerge as the most powerful and most righteous nation in the world, I have no doubt about it.
Posted by: Eugene | March 25, 2008 at 02:16 PM
Team-work and Communication Skills
These are two basic skills one has to have in order to get things done. If it applies to the west world, why have people assumed that they are not required insdie China?
I hope the boss of this media is reading this post.
Posted by: Y | March 25, 2008 at 03:45 PM
China Law Blog:
You forgot to mention "Economist". They had a reporter,James Miles on the ground and was quite objective in his reportings. What puzzles me is that almost all other news media choosed to ignore him and other eyewitness accounts from foreign tourists. Some of them actually blogged about it(http://kadfly.blogspot.com/).
My guess is that WSJ,Economist and FT serves business interests and Multinationals companies have a stake in China's stability. Therefore Business reporters tend to be more cautious reporting such events while others would try to sensationalize to the max.
Posted by: bandw | March 25, 2008 at 06:46 PM
What the government is trying to avoid is another Benjamin Joffe-Walt running around Tibet.
I am afraid given the history of US backed insurgency in the region, there are quite legitimate reasons to keep a tight leash on foreigners.
Posted by: A B | March 25, 2008 at 07:04 PM
Just learnt a new phrase "sour grapes" and wonder if this is a perfect context to use the phrase.
It is also a very embarrassing situation to receive a call from someone asking "my fiends tell me you are having a party, are you going to invite me?"
Oops. I know I need to use my left hand for the fork and right hand for the knife, or it is the other way around. But it really doesn't matter. The point is one has to have manners regardless of where he/she is.
Posted by: Y | March 26, 2008 at 03:25 AM
Y, thanks for reading my blog. It seems you find it useful and a worthwhile way to spend your time.
Posted by: tim J | March 26, 2008 at 03:33 AM
To CLB: Dan, let me clarify that I have no quibble with the journalists for the FT or the WSJ or anyone else going on this trip. Many of them are friends and topnotch journalists. My quibble would be if the government would later suggest that it had opened the doors to Tibet. In fact, it is stage-managed. My colleagues have freedom to write what they want. But I bet the trip will be organized for 18 hours a day with activities. It's like that once-a-year press conference that Premier Wen Jiabao gives. Virtually all the questioners are pre-selected ahead of time. For a couple of years, I would be in the audience waving my hand like crazy to get picked for a question. Then I realized it wasn't really a news conference open to anyone. It is a PR show in which certain kinds of questions are vetted ahead of time to give the premier a chance to get a point across. And before anybody suggests that a White House or State Department press conference is the same, I dispute that completely and wholeheartedly now. Just read a transcript of a State Dept press conference at www.state.gov and you'll see that there are some wacky questions that get asked.
Posted by: tim J | March 26, 2008 at 05:40 AM
There is every reason to be unimpressed by the crude methods used to manage the message by many Chinese organizations.
However, it may be asking a bit too much for them to change overnite from completely stage managed affairs to a totally free forum.
Perhaps you can help them along that way by the following: If you feel it is going to be hopelessly stage managed, as the one described above, Don't show up! Make your reporting and copy contingent on some minimal level of candidness / access.
Remember, even the most blatant stage manager (like Saddam's spokesman) need an audience to get his message out.
Stay true to your course, don't be discouraged, but also don't feel you can do nothing about this. China is changing and learning, albeit sometimes slower than China needs to at times.
Posted by: A B | March 26, 2008 at 08:43 AM
Frankly speaking, Chinese on the whole view all of you arse hole foreign correspondents as shit stirrers at best or utter spies at the worst. We will not even mind if our govt expels all of you after the Olympics is over. There is only one major obsession we have~to continue to perfect our weaponry to deal THE final blow to the US, this I mean bringing fire, destruction, death right onto your soil, to avenge all the deaths & destructions you so happilly bestow to all the weaker peoples around the world throughout history. God bless the Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans! Boycott London 2012! Banish all white settlers from Australia, New Zealand, North America!
Posted by: Mainlander | March 26, 2008 at 11:23 PM
@Mainlander: Valium. Ask for it by name. And ask for an economics 101 textbook while you're at it.
On the question of which media were selected, I'm not surprised to see FT and WSJ on the list (and not surprised to not see the NYT). However, based especially on the WSJ stories I've been reading, if the Chinese authorities are expecting a soft touch or compliance because these papers serve a largely commercial audience, then they should reappraise their strategy.
Posted by: Will | March 27, 2008 at 01:33 AM
Thank you Mainlander, for speaking eloquently, on behalf of many of your fellow- Chinese, and giving an earful to those crappy Western "journalists".
Posted by: bemis | March 28, 2008 at 12:32 AM