Beijing gives its blessing to bad news

Published on Thursday 20 November 2008 20:05

China's leaders bow to inevitable and opt for management rather than censorship

FOR decades, bad news was no news in China. The media, even if not under direct state control, avoided any mention of social or economic troubles, with Beijing particularly sensitive about China's image abroad.

However, the Communist Party has now decided that the truth is best after all, and better than rumour for certain.

Recently and by degrees, Chinese media have increased reporting of protests over land, labour and investment issues – and officials say this reveals an attempt by the government to manage the impact of bad news by acknowledging it.

Propaganda authorities have issued a writ authorising news organisations to report on unrest, rather than allow rumours to take hold among Chinese worried about the impact of the global financial crisis.

Strikes by taxi drivers and protests by newly laid-off workers have been reported regularly, as have riots in north-western Gansu province this week and a mass petition in Beijing.

"The Chinese government has started to loosen its control on the negative information," an academic source close to propaganda authorities said. "They are trying to control the news by publicising the news," added the source, who, perhaps revealingly, declined to be named.

But the shift, if continued, would be a bold move for China, which only in 2005 legalised the reporting of the death toll from natural disasters.

A party official confirmed that the policy towards news had gradually changed this year.

"It's almost impossible to block anything nowadays, when information can spread very quickly on the internet," he said. "We also noticed it will benefit us if we report the news first."

Chinese media were allowed unprecedented freedom in the first week after the devastating May earthquake in Sichuan, that killed about 80,000 people and unified the country around the dramatic rescue effort. But coverage shifted to accolades of central government leaders and soldiers as soon as questions began to surface about why so many schools had collapsed.

A blackout of bad news during the Beijing Olympics in August also resulted in delayed reporting of milk tainted with melamine that ultimately killed at least four babies and made thousands sick. However, the academic added: "The central government has (now] permitted local authorities to publicise negative news themselves, with no need to report to upper governments any more.

"They have a principle of, 'Report the facts quickly, but be cautious on the causes behind the facts'."

Official news organisations still often lag behind reports posted on the internet and usually downplay any elements that might raise mistrust of the Communist Party.

But yesterday, for example, the Xinhua news agency made an unusual acknowledgement of protests in the capital, when it reported nearly 400 people, angry at losses in an illegal fundraising scheme, gathered in Beijing.