China Media Project looks at foreign media reporting of new rules allegedly allowing more media access in Shenzhen:
The China Daily article, which carried the hopeful title “Law will guard journalists’ right to know,” quoted three sources, two of which were Shenzhen’s deputy propaganda chief, Xuan Zhuxi, and the head of the city government’s press office, Su Huijun.
These guys are basically the Tweedledum (party) and Tweedledee (government) of press control in Shenzhen. They must be laughing behind their sleeves right now about the rather generous foreign press they’ve gotten.
The third source quoted in the China Daily article, named as national radio reporter Li Qiang, sets up the shot for any of us who are prepared to be skeptical. Here’s what he says, in the final paragraph no less — which should suggest the writer of the report is winking at us too:
“It will be more convenient to get the right person with an improvement of the spokesman system. But the regulation doesn’t specify that the spokesman or his office must respond to an issue, which would be the real help for us journalists,” said Li Qiang, a reporter at a national radio station.
The online reports from the BBC and AFP suggest their news writers didn’t get the hint.
© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. |
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