China seen as reneging on media-freedom vow

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Five years later, the Chinese government announced that foreignjournalists could freely conduct interviews with any consentingChinese citizen on any "political, economic, social and culturalmatters" from Jan. 1, 2007 to Oct. 17, 2008.
Both of those promises have been repeatedly violated, and mediafreedom has deteriorated in China since mid-2007, according to thereport by Human Rights Watch, an independent human-rightsorganization based in New York.
It documented how several foreign journalists have sufferedbeatings or detention in the past 10 months, while others have beenthreatened with the loss of their Olympic accreditation because thegovernment disliked their reports. One reporter was kicked andpunched by suspected plainclothes security agents who detained himfor two hours when he visited an illegal jail in Beijing wherepetitioners were detained.
At least 10 foreign correspondents - and some of their familymembers - were subjected to anonymous death threats from Chineseindividuals in phone calls, e-mails and text messages in March andApril during the Tibetan unrest. But despite many complaints fromthe Foreign Correspondents Club of China, government officialsrefused to investigate the death threats, the report says.
It also says the death threats led to the temporary closing of aforeign television news bureau in Beijing and the temporaryrelocation of the bureau chiefs of two Beijing-based foreign mediaoutlets.
The media freedom promise, which came into effect in January of2007, did not mention any exceptions or limits. But this wasquickly superseded by a new announcement that Tibet would still betightly restricted. Foreign journalists who managed to enter Tibetwere obstructed, intimidated or followed.
This spring, after the Tibetan protests, the "forbidden zones" wereexpanded to include several new geographic regions - the ethnicallyTibetan districts of Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan and Qinghai provinces.Foreign journalists were kicked out of these regions, or blockedfrom entering.
After the Sichuan earthquake on May 12, foreign journalists wereallowed free access to the quake zone for several weeks. But sinceJune 2, the Foreign Correspondents Club has documented at leastnine incidents in which foreign journalists were detained orroughed up by authorities in the earthquake zone.
Another tactic is the detention or intimidation of Chinese sourceswho speak to foreign journalists. One Chinese person who spoke to aforeign television crew in March was beaten by police so severelythat he needed hospital treatment, the report says.
The attacks on Chinese sources have increased during the past year,the report said. "The intensified pressure on sources appears to bean intentional tactic by government officials and security forcesto maintain a veneer of freedom for foreign journalists whileseriously undermining their capacity to report effectively."
Although foreign journalists are often obstructed or pressured, thecontrols on the Chinese media are much stricter. The governmentsends weekly faxes to Chinese media outlets, announcing the latestrestrictions on their coverage, the report says. And at China'sstate television network, the computer terminals of all journalistsare linked to an electronic system that tells them the latestdecrees on issues that they are prohibited from covering.