China snubs CNN apology over Cafferty remarks

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN – 4 hours ago

BEIJING (AP) — China on Thursday snubbed an apology from CNN over remarks by one of its commentators as a wave of verbal assaults on foreign media raised concerns over coverage at this summer's Beijing Olympics.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu rejected CNN's explanation that commentator Jack Cafferty was referring to China's leaders — not the Chinese people — when he described them as "goons and thugs." CNN said it apologized to anyone who thought otherwise.

But Jiang said at a regularly scheduled news conference that the CNN statement lacked sincerity and instead "turned its attack on the Chinese government to try to sow division between the Chinese government and the people."

The head of the ministry's information department summoned CNN's bureau chief in Beijing on Wednesday night to deliver a near identical protest.

CNN has been singled out by the Chinese government and unknown activists who have phoned and e-mailed death threats to Western reporters. Most of the criticism of the Atlanta-based network concerns a photograph posted on its Web site weeks ago which cropped out Tibetans throwing stones at Chinese security forces.

Chinese at home and abroad have heatedly accused Western media of biased coverage of violent anti-government protests in Tibet and across western China last month.

Numerous Web postings, YouTube videos and Facebook groups have criticized the Tibet news coverage, including a Web site called anti-cnn.com, which was set up especially to point out alleged media bias.

Anger has been further stirred by high-profile protests among Tibetans, free-speech advocates and others dogging the Beijing Olympic Torch's passage through London and Paris.

CNN and other foreign satellite broadcasts can be seen only in hotels, offices and housing developments open to foreigners, meaning very few Chinese would have heard Cafferty's original comments.

Censors also block many foreign news sites on the Internet, pointing to an underlying irony of the ongoing protests — that they profess outrage over foreign media reports that their government does not permit them to view.

The entirely state-controlled media has joined in the vilification campaign, with the criticisms of CNN featuring prominently in Thursday's newspapers and TV shows.

A signed editorial in the Communist Party's flagship People's Daily attacked what it called Cafferty's "verbal violence."

"When people wake up and face the facts, there will be no more market for 'information terrorism,'" the editorial said.

The vilification of Western media has renewed concerns about media controls during the Olympics, when thousands of foreign reporters are expected to be in Beijing to cover the August Games. Beijing has pledged to meet past standards for coverage, but has repeatedly violated those promises by detaining journalists and banning them from parts of the country.

Once again: fuck China. Sideways.

Pretty much. I'm waiting to see what sort of shit happens when journalists covering the Olympics start saying or exposing things China will have a fit over.

I'm guessing they won't have access to anything that could make China look bad. They'll be herded around with armed escort from one staged utopia to the next.

Oh yeah, I've read about that already. "State Sponsored Media Guides" was the term used, I think. But let's hope for some good old yankee ingenuity international journalist style.

In China, Western Journalists Face Challenges, Threats

BU prof says local students buy government line

The five cuddly, brightly colored “Fuwa” mascots of this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing send the world wishes for “prosperity, happiness, passion, health, and good luck,” according to the Olympic Games’ English-language Web site.

But as China goes all out with Olympic preparations, and as foreign media flood its cities, some Web-based patriots have a less welcoming message for Western journalists who write about China’s human rights record, particularly the country’s response to recent riots in Tibet. New sites, such as anti-cnn are filled with complaints about the “lies” of Western media, and laced with exhortations such as, “Beat to death these unjust conscienceless criminals.” Some Western reporters have been personally threatened with harm. “The Chinese people don’t welcome you, American running dog,” reads an e-mail to an Associated Press reporter. “Your reports twist the facts and you will suffer the curse of heaven.” A text message to a Western journalist states simply, “One of these days I’m going to kill you.”

“Western news bureaus have been inundated with nasty, scary stuff,” says Anne Donohue, a College of Communication associate professor of journalism, who is currently in Beijing on a Fulbright award teaching her craft to Chinese students at the People’s University of China. Donohue says the Chinese government has been pushing the bias story through its official media, with daily headlines decrying the coverage. In a phone interview from Beijing, Donohue tells BU Today that her undergraduate journalism students, people she would expect to be natural skeptics, are buying the official storyline of a Western media conspiracy “hook, line, and sinker.”

“These students really see the world in a very different way,” she says over a crackling phone line. “They think that nationalism or building up their country at all costs is the most important thing, and that’s more important than any other freedoms they would want.”

To learn more about China and the Olympics, listen to WBUR's On Point, which this week is broadcasting live from Shanghai.

Journalist group: concerns remain over reporters in China

1 day ago

BEIJING (AP) — A journalism rights group said Wednesday it is concerned for the safety of reporters in the run-up to this summer's Olympics after accounts of threats against them.

The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists said it welcomed China's willingness to have a dialogue on media freedom but was worried about threats made to journalists reporting on the unrest in Tibet and disturbances during the Olympic torch relay.

"We are impressed by a new willingness to talk through our differences over press freedom and journalism, but the problems facing reporters on the ground cannot be ignored," said Aidan White, IFJ general secretary, at the end of the four-day visit to Beijing.

Western reporters in China have received harassing phone calls, e-mails and text messages, some with death threats, supposedly from ordinary Chinese complaining about alleged bias in coverage of recent anti-Chinese protests in Tibet.

The harassment began about three weeks ago and has largely targeted foreign television broadcasters, CNN in particular.

But the campaign broadened earlier this month after mobile phone numbers and other information for reporters from The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today were posted on several Web sites, including a military affairs chat site.

White said he and an IFJ delegation have held meetings with Chinese government officials, the government-backed All China Journalists Association and the Beijing Olympic Committee.

White said the group plans to follow up on efforts to ensure journalists' safety during the Olympics and to establish a framework for joint actions designed to improve communications between Chinese journalists and their colleagues overseas.

About 30,000 officially accredited and non-accredited journalists are expected in Beijing for the Games.