Editors' Blog | Journalism.co.uk » China

Voice of America: China’s Foreign Ministry questioned on Al Jazeera journalist visa issue

Rachel McAthy — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:53:32 +0000

Image by jamiejohndavies on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Voice of America has published what it says is a transcript of questions put to the spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, in relation to Al Jazeera English’s report that its China correspondent Melissa Chan had her visa renewal application “refused”.

Journalism.co.uk reported on Tuesday (8 May) that Al Jazeera English has closed down its Beijing bureau after Chan’s visa was apparently “refused” by authorities.

Al Jazeera said in its report “it is continuing to request a presence in China”.

Voice of America has published “a transcript of some of the questions and answers at the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s daily briefing” in which a spokesman is said to have responded to questions from foreign journalists about what had happened.

Hong Lei: I have stressed that China welcomes foreign journalists to report in China and we have also provided convenience to foreign journalists in reporting objectively in China. I think you have been in China for several years and are very clear about this. At the same time I want to stress that foreign journalists should abide by Chinese laws and regulations while reporting in China.

Read Voice of America’s full article here.

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Journalisted Weekly: Syrian refugees, Grand Prix, & Southern Cross

Sarah Booker — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 09:39:53 +0000

Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for you, the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about.

It is run by the Media Standards Trust, a registered charity set up to foster high standards in news on behalf of the public, and funded by donations from charitable foundations.

Each week Journalisted produces a summary of the most covered news stories, most active journalists and those topics falling off the news agenda, using its database of UK journalists and news sources.

for the week ending Sunday 12 June

Syrian crackdown and Southern Cross crisis gripped headlines
Grand Prix news drove the back pages
Vietnam-China tensions and world’s largest refugee camp, covered little

Covered lots

Grand Prix, with Jenson Button winning the Canadian race, and the Bahrain race postponed due to political unrest, 273 articles
Troubled care home provider Southern Cross, denied government bailout, cutting 3,000 jobs, and planning to hive off over 130 homes, 154 articles
Syrian refugees fleeing the town of Jisr al-Shughour along Turkey’s border, with 120 of the 189 dead alleged to be soldiers killed for refusing orders, 119 articles

Covered little

Tensions escalate between China and Vietnam over disputed South China Sea territory and oil exploration, 17 articles
An Iranian anti-government protester, held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, died on Sunday after ten days of hunger strike, 5 articles
The world’s largest refugee camp, on the Somalia-Kenya border, is declared full, with aid workers warning of a grave humanitarian crisis, 3 articles

Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)

David Cameron: 700 articles (+88% on previous week)
Tony Blair: 276 articles (+312% on previous week)
Ed Miliband: 238 articles (+386% on previous week)
George Osborne: 194 articles (+88% on previous week)
Gordon Brown: 180 articles (+134% on previous week)
Vince Cable: 177 articles (+503% on previous week)
Ed Balls: 166 articles (+295% on previous week)
Nick Clegg: 161 articles (+59% on previous week)
Theresa May: 128 articles (+266% on previous week)
William Hague: 123 articles (+78% on previous week)

Celebrity vs serious

Singer Nicole Scherzinger, who replaced Cheryl Cole as US X Factor judge, 50 articles vs. the previous government’s counter-terrorism strategy, accused of channelling money towards extremists, 43 articles
Singer Lily Allen, ties the knot, 40 articles vs. vs. a volcanic eruption in Chile, forcing 3,500 to flee and disrupting flights in Australasia, 33 articles
Model Kate Moss has her hen party, 37 articles vs. Peru’s election, won by left-populist candidate Ollanta Humala, 31 articles

Arab spring

Libya and Colonel Gaddafi Libya and Colonel Gaddafi, 170 articles (+23% on previous week)
Syria and President Bashar Al-Assad, 159 articles (+189% on previous week)
Turkey and Prime Minster Erdogan Turkey and Prime Minster Erdogan, 77 articles (+3,750% on previous week)
Yemen and President Saleh, 75 articles (-9% on previous week)
Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu, 16 articles (-30% on previous week)
Iran and President Ahmadinejad, 15 articles (+25% on previous week)
Gaza and Hamas, 11 articles (-39% on previous week)
Bahrain and King Al Khalifa, 9 articles (-40% on previous week)
Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah, 7 articles (-46% on previous week)
West Bank and President Abbas West Bank and President Abbas, 7 articles (+250% on previous week)
Oman and Sultan Said 3 articles (+200% on previous week)
Jordan and King Abdullah, 3 articles (+200% on previous week)
Egypt’s Military Council, 1 articles (-92% on previous week)
UAE and President Al Nahyan, 1 articles (-92% on previous week)

Who wrote a lot about…’Ed Miliband’

Nicholas Watt – 8 articles (The Guardian), Andrew Grice – 6 articles (The Independent), James Kirkup – 6 articles (The Telegraph), Allegra Stratton – 4 articles (The Guardian), Robert Winnett – 4 articles (The Telegraph)

Long form journalism

4,141 words: Kosovo’s bitter harvest – Ed Caesar, Sunday Times, 12th June 2011
3,500 words: Groupon: The golden nugget – Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian, 11th June 2011
3,022 words: British institutions: horse racing – Matthew Engel, Financial Times, 11th June 2011

More from the Media Standards Trust

Visit the Media Standards Trust’s new site Churnalism.com – a public service for distinguishing journalism from churnalism

Churnalism.com ‘explore’ page is available for browsing press release sources alongside news outlets

The Media Standards Trust’s unofficial database of PCC complaints is available for browsing at www.complaints.pccwatch.co.uk

For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe

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NYT: Western journalists tracked and detained in China

Sarah Marshall — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:39:28 +0000

According to a New York Times report, foreign journalists have been tracked and detained by officials in China in an effort to clamp down on protests.

On Sunday, about a dozen European and Japanese journalists in Shanghai were herded into an underground bunkerlike room and kept for two hours after they sought to monitor the response to calls on an anonymous Internet site for Chinese citizens to conduct a “strolling” protest against the government outside the Peace Cinema, near People’s Square in Shanghai.

The Media Guardian reports that China has denied the accusations. Chinese newspaper Global Times has reportedly accused Western journalists of fabricating news to discredit the country.

Full New York Times story at this link

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Straits Times: Chinese state newspaper accuses Western journalists of ‘fabricating’ news

Sarah Marshall — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:38:45 +0000

Beijing paper the Global Times has accused foreign journalists in China of fabricating news, according to a report by the Straits Times.

‘It is not unusual for Beijing-based Western journalists to receive demands from bosses in their home countries to make up stories,’ said an opinion piece in the paper, which is linked to the ruling Communist Party.

Western reporters ‘must never take delight in blind, idle chatter and instead should remember your true status and the laws of the nation where you are living.’ The commentary appeared to underline rising official anxiety over an online call for rallies in cities across China each Sunday.

This comes a day after the Eurasia Review reported that foreign journalists had been threatened with expulsion if they report on pro-democracy rallies currently being organised online.

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Media Week: China Daily to launch newspaper in UK

Laura Oliver — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 12:54:56 +0000

English-language, state-owned Chinese newspaper the China Daily is launching a UK and European edition, according to Media Week.

The report suggests that the new China Daily European Weekly title will be launched tomorrow with a print run of 25,000 in the UK.

Full story on Media Week at this link…

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WSJ: Chinese blogger conference cancelled due to pressure from authorities

Rachel McAthy — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 10:51:13 +0000

An annual blogging conference in Shanghai was cancelled over the weekend due to pressure from the authorities, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

The Chinese Blogger Conference reportedly normally attracts online commentators, digital artists and entrepreneurs, many of whom are said to be critical of government censorship. The decision to cancel is “the latest sign of tightening limits in China on free expression” WSJ reports.

This year, organizers waited until four days ahead of the two-day conference’s planned start on Saturday to announce the venue, an office building in Shanghai’s Xuhui District, near Shanghai Jiaotong University. But the planned hosts reneged late last week owing to pressure from authorities not to let their venue be used for the conference, according to one of the organizers.

Read WSJ’s full report here.

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Journalisted Weekly: Cameron in China, students in London, Suu Kyi in Burma

Joel Gunter — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:16:00 +0000

Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for you, the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about. It is run by the Media Standards Trust, a registered charity set up to foster high standards in news on behalf of the public, and funded by donations from charitable foundations.

for the week ending Sunday 14 November

Coverage of David Cameron’s trip to China slightly surpassed news about student fees and subsequent protests
George W Bush’s presidential memoirs were widely covered in the UK and elsewhere
The minister for universities was hardly mentioned

The Media Standards Trust’s latest report ‘Shrinking World: The decline of international reporting in the British press’ is now available to download

For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe

Covered lots

David Cameron in China, where the prime minister went to promote UK-Chinese relations, 213 articles
An increase in tuition fees for students that sparked student protests and some rioting in Conservative HQ at Millbank, 196 articles
George Bush’s autobiography, in which he defended the use of waterboarding, 151 articles
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest in Burma on Sunday, 107 articles

Covered little

Concerns about Ireland’s ability to make payments on its sovereign debt, as the country resisted calls for an EU bail-out, 30 articles
David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, in a week of student protests, 12 articles
The engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton, made in October, and followed by a flurry of bets, 3 articles

Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)

David Cameron: 527 articles (+10% on previous week)
Nick Clegg: 180 articles (+53% on previous week)
George Osborne: 138 articles (+6% on previous week)
Gordon Brown: 109 articles (+9% on previous week)
Iain Duncan Smith: 109 articles (+148% on previous week)
Vince Cable: 103 articles (-9% on previous week)
Tony Blair: 89 articles (+7% on previous week)
Ed Miliband: 84 articles (+12% on previous week)
Harriet Harman: 77 articles (+97% on previous week)
Michael Gove: 64 articles (+21% on previous week)

Celebrity vs serious

Take That, who appeared together for the first time since 1995 – on the X-Factor, 94 articles vs the formation of Iraq’s new power-sharing government, headed by Nouri Maliki, 28 articles
Ann Widdecombe, ex-politician turned ballroom dancer, 55 articles vs Paul Chambers, whose conviction for a tweet about ‘blowing up’ Robin Hood airport was upheld, 18 articles
Emma Watson, who attended the premiere of the new Harry Potter film, 51 articles vs child detention, in the week Clare Sambrook won a second award for her investigations and Peers condemned the government’s postponement of the ending of child detention, 3 articles

Who wrote a lot about…’Aung San Suu Kyi‘

Jack Davies – 11 articles (The Guardian), Phoebe Kennedy – 10 articles (The Independent), Andrew Buncombe – 6 articles (The Independent), Tim Johnston – 5 articles (Financial Times), Emma Cowing – 3 articles (Scotland on Sunday), Peter Walker – 3 articles (The Guardian), Mail Foreign Service – 2 articles (MailOnline)

Long form journalism

4,857 words: ‘Christopher Hitchens: ‘You have to choose your future regrets’, Andrew Anthony, The Observer, 14th November 2010
3,639 words: ‘Douglas Gordon on life in Berlin and growing up in Glasgow’, David Sharp, The Herald, 8th November 2010
3,190 words: ‘Fin de siecle: Has French cookery had its just desserts?’, John Lichfield, The Independent, 13th November 2010

Tune in same time next week.

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Social media and citizen journalism help chart China’s violent land grabs

Colin Shek — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:43:05 +0000

In the absence of an independent media, citizen journalism and social media have thrived in China and Chinese people have used the internet to report on civil and human rights abuses ignored by mainstream media.

Now an anonymous Chinese blogger called Bloody Map has collated incidents of illegal land grabs and property demolitions and plotted them on Google Maps.

The project, called 血房地图 (xuefang ditu or “Bloody Map”), charts often-violent evictions and demolitions throughout China. According to the project’s Sina account (now invite-only), its aim is to:

… collect and list cases of violent eviction which have, or will, already faded from public view; some cases going back 2-3 years I had to dig up myself, but with your support, it’ll be much easier. When I say that new housing is being built right now on land covered in blood, people know what I mean.

There are forceful evictions taking place now which need more media attention, Bloody Map on its own isn’t an appropriate platform to that end. People can’t expect that an effort like this will create enough attention to put an end to current forced evictions. The goal of this site is to present evidence allowing consumers to make decisions. If a day comes when this tiny map is able to make people within the interest chain of a particular eviction reconsider their actions, then it will have achieved its goal.

There are actually two Bloody Maps: a “revised” version edited by the founder that shows only cases reported by media, and an “open” version that anyone can add to or edit. Contributors use symbols to specify the nature of the property-related violence: video cameras for media coverage; volcanoes for violence during protests; beds for when property owners were killed; and flames for when those resisting eviction set themselves on fire.

Since launching a month ago on October 8, the maps have recorded 130 incidents and attracted more than 476,000 views. The founder says incidents will be removed when the media reports the resolution of conflicts. The project itself has attracted some media attention, with both the Shanghai Daily newspaper (subscription required) and Xinhua news agency reporting on the maps.

Colin Shek is an NCTJ print postgraduate from the University of Sheffield, currently based in Shanghai. This post was originally published on his website: www.colinshek.com. He can be found on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/colinshek

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Globe and Mail: Chinese media shows increasing independence

Laura Oliver — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:18:39 +0000

The Globe and Mail looks at increasing independence amongst Chinese media organisations. Writes Mark MacKinnon:

For years, there hasn’t been much nice said about Chinese journalists. Most were seen as either government mouthpieces or bribe-taking corporate shills. But the reputation of China’s news media is on the rise lately after a series of incidents in which reporters refused to back down in the face of intimidation, sticking to their stories even if it meant getting beaten or jailed.

Full story on Globe and Mail at this link…

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Nieman Journalism Lab: Only 11% original reporting on Google/China hacking story

Judith Townend — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:55:14 +0000

So where does news aggregation get in the way of original reporting? Nieman Journalism Lab took a look at one big story – the attack on Google in China – and analysed its treatment by various news organisations. A spreadsheet shows the full results (download file at this link).

[Jonathan Stray] I chose a single big story and read every single version listed on Google News to see who was doing the work. Out of the 121 distinct versions of last week’s story about tracing Google’s recent attackers to two schools in China, 13 (11 per cent) included at least some original reporting. And just seven organisations (six percent) really got the full story independently.

Full post at this link…

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Google’s head of public policy: ‘We live or die by the trust our users have in our services’

Judith Townend — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:22:43 +0000

Google’s head of public policy and government relations pushed the ‘don’t be evil’ line at last night’s Amnesty International social media event, with emphasis on user power and responsible company behaviour.

“We live or die by the trust our users have in our services,” Susan Pointer told the audience of human rights, technology and media workers gathered to discuss the positive and negative uses of technology for democracy.

Also speaking were the Guardian’s digital media research editor, Kevin Anderson; Annabelle Sreberny, professor of global media and communication at SOAS; and author and blogger Andrew Keen: who spoke from the US via an iPhone held up to the mic by the event chair, BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones.

“[A] very important thing to understand about the way our business operates is that our users choose to use it,” Pointer later told Journalism.co.uk.

“We don’t have a contract with our users that ties them into our services. They haven’t invested a lot of money in our software packages.

“The way we keep our users is by continuing to provide good, leading edge innovative services: they’re free at the click of a mouse to choose an alternative to Google.”

Providing valuable services for users keeps the search giant – which owns YouTube as well as running a host of other products – on its toes, she said.

Improving the transparency of the recently launched social media application Google Buzz was one such reaction to user complaints, she added.

When the company realised improvements could be made, they were implemented, she said: “that’s something we did within hours and not days.”

While Pointer argued that no user information was ever revealed before an individual went through the Buzz set-up process, she said it had been necessary to make changes to the visibility of the user controls.

The addition of Buzz to the Google Dashboard allowed even greater user control over settings, she argued.

On Google’s approach to China she would not be drawn beyond the company’s most recent blog post, which explained its decision to stop censoring the Chinese language Google search service: “We no longer felt comfortable self-censoring results on Google.cn.”

The company is currently “discussing the possibility of continuing the Google.cn service without such censorship”.

“We’re not going to give a running commentary on where discussions are, but we want those discussions to be in good faith.”

Listen to Pointer talking to the Amnesty UK audience via AudioBoo:

On China:

On privacy, Google Buzz and customising advertising:

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FT Chinese staff threatened with redundancies

Judith Townend — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:40:12 +0000

A group of journalists working for FT Chinese, a Chinese language website, are facing redundancy if they do not return to China, on half their salaries, the National Union of Journalists has reported.

Two of the four Chinese journalists are British citizens, and they already have “inferior” terms and conditions to other journalists at the Financial Times, it was claimed by the NUJ today.

The National Union of Journalists Financial Times chapel is threatening to ballot for action, if plans are not reversed.

The NUJ chapel at the Financial Times voted unanimously – at a meeting attended by over 80 members – to demand that the threat of the redundancies be lifted.

“We condemn the outrageous treatment of journalists on FT Chinese. We demand no redundancies on FT Chinese and that the journalists be placed on the same terms and conditions as the rest of FT editorial. It is unconscionable that the FT is sending FT Chinese journalists into harm’s way. We will ballot for industrial action if these demands are not met,” said a spokesperson from the NUJ office branch.

One of the FT Chinese staff wrote to colleagues: “It was a tremendous shock to the entire team. This reminded us of a very old Chinese saying: ‘kill the donkey after it has done its job at the mill’. The best equivalent in English I can think of is ‘kick down the ladder’.”

A email sent to FT staff on behalf of the NUJ chapel, said it “was shocked but not surprised to hear about the Chinese journalist situation”.

“This is no longer the FT that we all joined. The FT used to be a place of compassion, where people were looked after and, in return, gave the job their all.

“Now there are job cuts while new hires are ongoing, constant pressure from bosses to get more in a shrinking paper, filing for the web for ft.com and blogging, and yet no personal support in return. This new FT is not the great place to work of the past. The end result will be lack of commitment to the paper, which will, eventually, show up in the quality of the end product.

The Financial Times told Journalism.co.uk it did not have a comment to make at this point.

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China Media Project/Singapore Straits Times: The state of investigative journalism in China

Laura Oliver — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:34:58 +0000

“It may not quite be the Fourth Estate as in the Western press but a form of ‘watchdog journalism’ exists in China,” says this interesting piece looking at the growth of and challenges to investigative journalism in China.

The article takes a look at those organisations carrying out investigations, the help/hindrance of the internet, whether investigative journalists are chasing the right stories and what price they might pay for their work.

Full story at this link…

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EnvironmentGuardian.co.uk’s makeover

Judith Townend — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:23:17 +0000

A new look for Guardian.co.uk’s environment pages was unveiled today, with the promise of more editorial content from its six correspondents.

“The Guardian has built this unrivalled team in the belief that environmental issues, and in particular global warming, is the defining issue of our age, combining politics, economics and social justice,” said James Randerson, editor of EnvironmentGuardian.co.uk, in a release from Guardian News & Media.

“We hope that all of the new features on the site – together with the enthusiastic participation of our visitors – will serve as an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to understand the context behind the headlines.”

Expert correspondents now include one in Washington DC, one in China and one dedicated to green technology, the release said.

Also announced:

A new video series featuring the Observer columnist Lucy Siegle

A new environment data store

To mark the UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December, the foreign secretary David Miliband will answer users’ questions in a live online Q&A at lunchtime on Tuesday (September 8, 2009) – time to be confirmed.

Randerson is asking for user feedback at this link.

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Politico: Bill Clinton will try to secure release of US journalists held in North Korea

Judith Townend — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:31:06 +0000

The former president Bill Clinton has gone to to North Korea to try and win the release of two women journalists who have been detained since March 17, Politico learned from a Washington source.

“North Korean officials told one family that they would release the women to Clinton, the source said. The family then approached the former president.”

Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36 are reporters for Current TV, and were arrested in March near the China-North Korea border while reporting on the trafficking of women. They were sentenced to 12 years hard labour in June.

Full Politico story at this link…

A campaign to release the journalists can be found at http://www.lauraandeuna.com/ and on Twitter: @LiberateLauraSF.

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