Warnings about Beijing Olympics coverage fall on deaf ears

Michael Hedges June 25, 2008

As the countdown to the Beijing Olympics ticks louder media watchers, broadcasters and European officials see only no let-up in Chinese authorities’ intention to stage-manage all coverage.

More than 30,000 foreign media workers will arrive in China over the next month and a half. Most are there to support coverage by the biggest rights holders. All are intent on bringing to their listeners, viewers and readers coverage beyond the Olympic venues as China has long been behind a media wall and worldwide interest is immense. Chinese authorities want coverage limited to the Games with a few smiling faces and happy stories thrown in. Media organizations want that, too, but they didn’t just fall off the pumpkin truck. With all the investment in getting there and being there it’s a content-rich opportunity every broadcaster needs to maximize.

The passage of the Olympic flame across the globe, and now in China, has been the most visible effort by Chinese authorities to keep foreign media coverage light, happy and positive. The flame may have reached Xinjiang and Tibet but many foreign reporters missed the experience, said a Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) statement (June 24).  The Chinese authorities handpicked more than half the journalists covering the flame’s arrival in Lhasa, according to RSF, which noted that no UK or US newspaper reporters were allowed.

“Never have foreign journalists been so restricted in reporting on an event that has been outrageously politicized by the Chinese government,” said the RSF statement.

“What's going on now might be an indication of what could happen during the games," said European Broadcasting Union’s head of sports operations Fernando Pardo,in a lengthy AP dispatch (June 21). "We have worked in communist regimes before. But here it is much more difficult than Moscow.”

An emergency meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC, broadcasters and Chinese authorities in late May has been described as “tense” by several sources who have seen transcribed notes. Limitations on access through bureaucratic formalities have incensed broadcasters as much as their demands have incensed the Chinese authorities. An unconfirmed report suggests that NBC, payer of US$5.6 billion for rights, has yet to off-load critical equipment because of a slow-down by Chinese port inspectors. NBC, like the IOC, says nothing or keeps to upbeat diplomacy. Big money or not, nobody has leverage with the Chinese. The EBU’s Parda is one of the first major broadcasters to speak directly to the issue, saying, “The reaction of broadcasters could be unpredictable.” The EBU is an Olympic Games rights holder for European public broadcasters.

In April, when talk of a broadcast boycott was high, France Télévisions Director of Sports Daniel Bilalian said he wouldn’t tolerate any censorship. His spokesperson, last week, said “Mr. Bilalian’s position has not changed.”

Sights and sounds broadcast from China to the rest of the world during the Olympic Games and the run-up are one issue. The free flow of information back to the Chinese people from the international media is another. With all Chinese media tightly State controlled, internet access and distribution offers the opportunity for Chinese people to see beyond the ‘Great firewall’. Again Chinese authorities are showing little interest in anything but control.

“We say for instance to the Chinese, very clearly so, that their blocking of certain Internet content is absolutely unacceptable,” said EC Media Commissioner Viviane Reding to the Singapore Foreign Correspondents Association, quoted by TelecomTV (June 23).  “So Europe speaks up in this sense, and is fighting for the freedom of speech and the freedom to receive the news.”

"People should be free to receive information, we do not think blocking of sites for political reasons is the right way to proceed," Commissioner Reding added, quoted by Reuters (June 22).

If the broadcasters and media watchers are critical of the Chinese authorities, they are increasingly incensed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its president Jacques Rogge. "Things are moving extremely well to resolve these issues," said Rogge in a recent interview. Disagreement is widespread.

"I would love to agree with Mr. Rogge, but unfortunately I don't see many signs to agree," said the EBU’s Pardo in the AP interview. "There are dark clouds on the horizon that keep me from agreeing."

“The IOC remains silent,” said the RSF statement, “in the face of this new violation of the Olympic Charter by Chinese officials using the Olympic flame to justify political repression.”

Stay tuned.