The Contribution of the International Media Towards a More Democratic China - Essay Example

The Contribution of the International Media towards a More Democratic China China is of the remaining Communist countries in the world. Despite the fact that China has emerged lately as one of the major economic players in the new world, it cannot be denied that when it comes to extending freedoms especially to the media, China still take the traditional hardcore stand on censorship. Yes, there are a growing number of newspapers and magazines in China nowadays but most of these papers focus more on sports, lifestyle and other safe topics. Very few Chinese publications would even dare say a word about issues like Independence for Tibet or Xinjiang, the 1989 Tiananmen incident, Taiwanese Independence, call for more democracy and other controversial political issues (Bristow 2008). In fact, very few papers in China would even dare to go against the wishes of their government list they be arrested and put to jail for a long time. A clear example of how the Chinese government wants to lead the local media by the nose can be seen during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. According to a report of the Human Rights Watch, the Chinese government strictly prohibited the local media from publishing any unflattering news about China before and during the Olympics (sees www.hrw.org). Since the Chinese government controls the local media through systematic surveillance, intimidation and pressure of both economic and political in nature, local media has little choice but to follow what the Chinese government wants them to say or do. This scenario leaves the foreign media as the only factual source of information as what is happening in this country. Even then, foreign media find it difficult to move around the Chinese countryside in the hope of finding human interest stories because the Chinese government is quite strict allowing foreign media into the countryside. With the way the Chinese government suppress the freedom of the local media, it is now up to the international media community to act as the spokespersons of the Chinese community. In effect, the international media has a big role in shaping the democracy of China on the following grounds (a) serve as a neutral sector that reports what is truly happening in the country and serve as a persuasive voice calling for the international community to respond to any violations of the ideals of democracy (b) serve as catalyst for change in the way the Chinese government by proving the outside world a window of information and unbiased views on what is going on in China (c) serve as an international pressure group against the Chinese Government in behalf of the people of China and (d) serve a bridge of the Chinese people to the outside world. Being an outsider, the international media can provide credible and fair stories of what is happening inside Chinese territories. Stories that would have been otherwise killed before it even reached the newsroom of local Chinese newspapers may be published freely in an international newspaper. Stories are considered as taboo and must be suppressed in the China may be published freely without censorship in the international news. A good example of this is the incident in Tiananmen Square in 1989 where hundreds of protesters were killed (Cheng, N. 1996). Local media at that time were too scared to publish the real story but the international media who is free from the clutches and censorship of the Chinese government was able to tell the story as it really happened. Even now, the Chinese government still tries to suppress the truth about what happened during that incident and local media reporters who dare to tell the story may be meted with imprisonment or the very least, suffer from harassment. As a result, many people in China, especially the younger generations, are not even aware that such incident ever happened in their country. This really sad because people ought to know what they countrymen were willing to sacrifice for democracy. What happened during the Tiananmen Square incident may be a taboo topic in China (Cheng, N. 1996) but it is not so in the international community. When the incident happened, local Chinese journalists could not report what is happening for fear that they will be harmed. Since the local media could not tell the world about what is happening in the square, the international media therefore served as the eyes and eyes of the outside world. As the incident in the square unfold, people from all over the world hang on to the voice of BBC reporter Kate Adie and other international reporters who were the scene as they described the indiscriminate firing of weapons on the square (see news.bbc.co.uk). Clearly, without the presence of international reporters in the scene, such stories of carnage would never have reached the world and the perpetrators of the incident would have gone unpunished. The result of the publication of the Tiananmen Square story among international papers was quite dramatic. The violence at the square shocked the senses of the international community. Human rights groups from all over the world heard the story and they unanimously condemned the act of the Chinese Government. Most of these groups used the media to let their indignations be heard by the Chinese government. Despite the reluctance of the Chinese government at that time to admit its mistakes, it could not escape the outside pressures to do something to vindicate the victims of the massacre. The United States and the European Union instituted an embargo on weapons sales to the Peoples Republic of China in the wake of the violent suppression of the protect in Tiananmen Square. The 25 country weapons embargo against China is still being enforced today and from the looks of it, there is still no concrete sign that the embargo will be lifted very soon (see www.atimes.com). Clearly, without the brave and bold coverage of the international media, the international community would not have reacted the way it did. How could the international community react to something that they do not even know of? Without any inside information of what is going on, people around the world would not even have a clue of how the people in China live. The weapons embargo may not have crippled the Chinese army or convinced the Chinese Government to embrace the ideals of democracy but it surely sent a strong message to the Chinese government that the international community will not standby and watch innocent civilians being killed by the government who is supposed to protect them. Moreover, the weapons embargo serves as a reminder to the Chinese Government that the use of force against its own people is crime that must never go unpunished. Aside from the weapons embargo, pressure from the international community which is lead by the media also resulted to the payment of hardship assistance to the parents of some of the students who were killed at the square (Cheng, N. 1996). For people who live outside China, payment of hardship assistance may not sound much but in a land where so many people live below the poverty level, such assistance is already a lot. Moreover, the fact that the money comes from the government and is a form of compensation for the losses suffered by the parents of the students killed in the square, this act of the government is already a big leap. Even if the government still refuses to accept full responsibility of what happened at the square, we can see that it is yielding to the pressures of the outside world and is slowly changing its ways. The Chinese people may not see the change from communism to democracy in this lifetime but as long as people listens to the media and react properly to issues there is still hope that China will eventually soften and move slowly towards a more democratic regime. Perhaps the biggest contribution that the international media made on the Chinese peoples quest for democracy is that it assumes the function of the local media and serves a catalyst for change in the local scene. Note that after the Tiananmen Square incident, the government tightened its hold on the local media. There are so many stories that the local media could not write about what is happening in their country. Since the local media is now considered blind and mute when it comes to controversial issues about China, it is now up to the international media to shed light on what is truly going in this country without fearing that they will be arrested and put to jail. With the use of technology like the internet, the international media may be able to reach out to the Chinese community easily and tell these people about what is truly happening around them. It can educate the people about their rights without inciting these people to go against their government. In other words, the international media can bring the message of hope to people who hunger from freedom and justice. On the other hand, people from China who are afraid to speak openly about their dreams of a more democratic country can channel their thoughts to the international media. In turn, the international media can tell the world of how people in China lives and how they can live better if only they enjoy the same kind of democracy and freedom that most of us in the Western World take for granted. Works Cited “Group says China failing on media freedom promises,” Reuters, February 13, 2008, accessed 3 December 2008 http://uk.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUKPEK28404420080213 Bristow, Michael, “Stories China’s media could not write,” BBC News, January 6, 2008, accessed 3 December 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7171648.stm Cheng, N, Life and Death in Shanghai. New York. Penguin Books. 543 pages. (1996) Pages 470-471 China dismisses US Tiananmen call accessed 3 December 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4612535.stm China: Olympics Media Freedom Commitments Violated: IOC Ignores Beijing’s Broken Pledges and Denial of Access (July 7, 2008) accessed 3 December 2008 http://china.hrw.org/press/news_release/china_olympics_media_freedom_commitments_violated EU-China arms ban remains, for now accessed 3 December 2008 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GB03Ad02.html Media Freedom Violations in China accessed 3 December 2008 http://asiapacific.ifj.org/assets/docs/223/122/0d043df-4c0827a.pdf Picture power: Tiananmen stand-off accessed 3 December 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4313282.stm Traditional Media - Press Freedom and Censorship accessed 3 December 2008 http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/uschina/mi_trademedia.shtml Read More