The IFJ and China

• To investigate and report on the working and professional conditions of Chinese journalists;
• To consider the preparation and arrangements for the media coverage of the Olympic Games and to make recommendations on supportive actions for the 30,000 accredited and non-accredited journalists expected during the Games;
• To consider and make recommendations on the prospects for co-operation and dialogue between the IFJ and Chinese journalists through the All China Journalists Association on issues such as ethics and editorial independence, and human rights.

The mission members were:

• Aidan White (IFJ General Secretary)
• Gabriel Baglo (IFJ Africa Director, Senegal)
• Mogens Blicher Bjerregård (IFJ EC, DJ Denmark)
• Arne Konig (SJF- EFJ President, Sweden)
• Ulrike Maercks-Franzen (DJU-Verdi, Germany)
• Michael Klehm (DJV, Germany)
• Nikos Megrelis (IFJ EC, JUADN Greece)
• Christopher Warren (IFJ EC, MEAA Australia)
• Don Gasper (HKJA, Hong Kong)

The delegation held meetings with senior government officials, leaders of China's major media, foreign correspondents and the leadership of the All China Journalists Association. Other meetings were held with journalism students at Tsinghua University and with officials of European Union delegation to China.

During the visit the mission sought assurances on the prospects for the continuation of official guidelines introduced in 2007, but due to expire in 2008, which allow freedom of movement and freedom of access to local sources of information for visiting journalists.

The first indications are that these guidelines may well remain in place, despite reports of a number of violations. However, official support for this policy is fragile and any prospects for a continuation of this policy will depend upon how media, particularly foreign, perform before and during the Olympic Games.

Much of the discussion during the mission was driven by rising tensions between Chinese and foreign media over coverage of internal protests in Tibet by the foreign press in March 2008. There were reports that foreign journalists based in China are being targeted and abused on Chinese web-sites as a result of a wave of anti-foreigner hostility. Media coverage of the Olympic torch events in Europe and protests over China's human rights record contributed to this controversy.

China's political leaders and media chiefs remain profoundly dismissive of Western media attachment to human rights.

IFJ Asia-Pacific China Bulletin