PRESIDENT HU Jintao has promised that China will safeguard the rights of international news organisations reporting in China, and told a meeting of global media leaders that media groups had an obligation to help keep peace in the world.
“We will continue to make government affairs public, enhance information distribution, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of foreign news organisations and reporters, and facilitate foreign media coverage of China in accordance with China’s laws and regulations,” Mr Hu told the World Media Summit at the Great Hall of the People.
The reporting environment in China has improved significantly over the past six years, part of a new openness about reporting since the furore surrounding an attempted cover-up over the Sars epidemic in China.
Foreign journalists are rarely hassled when reporting in the big cities, except during major events such as sensitive anniversaries.
There has been a real explosion in news coverage of China, reflecting the world’s fascination and interest with China and its growing role in world affairs.
Beijing also abolished a requirement that journalists get permission to travel to places outside of Beijing or Shanghai, a measure linked to the Olympic Games last year.
Some issues remain taboo, however, especially coverage of human rights and other sensitive topics. Reporters complain they are regularly detained and sometimes have been assaulted, especially in smaller towns and in the countryside.
It is almost impossible to get access to government ministers and very difficult to persuade anyone in the public service to go on the record.
Mr Hu said that the global media had to do its part by upholding its social responsibility to promote truthful and objective communication of information.
The Chinese media is tightly controlled by the government and there are many restrictions on what journalists can and cannot report. All media are state-owned, although increasingly investment by private sector interests is being tolerated.
In recent years the government has opened up the rules on covering areas such as disasters. Following the recent unrest in Urumqi, foreign and domestic journalists were allowed to report on the riots, which costs 200 lives, with internet access granted to the media in a city that was otherwise in lockdown.
China is hosting the media gathering which has attracted 300 representatives from more than 170 media outlets from 80 countries, and among the great and the good taking part are News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch, and the chief editors of Reuters, the Associated Press and Japan’s Kyodo News agency.
Mr Murdoch said the Chinese media market was too “sheltered” and called for greater openness. “The more competition to provide Chinese individuals and institutions with financial news, the more informed their investment decisions will be,” he said. News Corp had a more successful experience in India, he added.