OPEN QUAKE COVERAGE UNPRECEDENTED, LONG-TERM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 BEIJING 002458 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/23/2033 TAGS: PGOV SOCI SCUL CH SUBJECT: OPEN QUAKE COVERAGE UNPRECEDENTED, LONG-TERM IMPACT UNCLEAR REF: BEIJING 2437 Classified By: Deputy Political Section Chief Ben Moeling. Reasons 1.4 (b/d). Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) Chinese journalists jumped at the chance to cover the devastating May 12 Sichuan earthquake without waiting for (or ignoring) guidance from the Party Propaganda Department, according to a variety of Embassy contacts. Premier Wen Jiabao's prompt appearance at the quake's worst-hit areas provided Party support for an unprecedented period of media transparency and access, with Chinese and foreign correspondents working side-by-side, and most bylines being written by newspaper reporters instead of China's state news agency Xinhua. The Party's Propaganda Department has since reasserted tighter control over earthquake coverage, with interlocutors agreeing that these unusual events do not constitute a turning point in Chinese media behavior, at least in the near term. At the same time, most contacts say that the experience of covering this earthquake has had a profound influence that will shape media coverage of similar events in the future. The Internet, in particular, played a pivotal role in keeping citizens informed of breaking events and in fostering public discussion. Internet commentary also spawned serious debates over moral values, which to some extent eclipsed the earthquake story itself among Chinese intellectuals. End Summary. Journalists Seize Opportunity -------------- ¶2. (C) In addition to commenting on the boost to Party legitimacy as a result of the Center's response to the Sichuan earthquake (reftel),contacts have also commented extensively on the uncharacteristically open PRC media coverage of the event. Some media contacts told PolOffs that the Party's Central Propaganda Department initially tried to limit coverage of the earthquake to reporters from the state news agency Xinhua, but several well-placed journalists said they were not aware of such efforts, and if such a directive was issued, it fell on deaf ears or quickly became a dead letter. Editors and journalists from a range of major PRC publications have said that China's press corps was on the ground in the worst-hit areas of Sichuan in record time. In a meeting with POLOFF on June 18, Wang Lin (protect), editor-in-chief of Beijing's most rapidly-growing mass-circulation daily, Fazhi Wanbao, said he dispatched 24 journalists to Sichuan within hours of the disaster. They arrived in Chengdu the next morning. Wang said he didn't know whether the Propaganda Department had issued guidance, but he didn't check because, "it did not matter." This was "the biggest media event of my lifetime," Wang said, and his journalists were clamoring to cover it. ¶3. (C) Other reporters told similar stories of jumping at the opportunity to cover the Sichuan quake. Huang Shan (protect),deputy editor at the influential, privately funded magazine Caijing, said on June 12 that two of the magazine's reporters and two photographers were on the ground in Sichuan on the evening of May 12, only a few hours after the earthquake struck. Since then, two other Caijing groups have been sent, with some still remaining in the province. Huang claimed there were no restrictions on sending journalists, even in the beginning. Cheng Fei (protect),a reporter for the official paper of Beijing City's Communist Youth League, the Beijing Youth Daily, spent five days in Sichuan reporting on the earthquake. He told POLOFF on June 10 that he had not heard of Propaganda Department limits on access or reporting. However, his paper took longer than the other two publications to assemble a crew of eight journalists and photographers as a result of travel logistics, not Propaganda Department restrictions. They arrived in Sichuan on the third day, May 14. In a meeting with POLOFF on June 14, retired prominent journalist Zhang Guangyou (protect) joked that reporters were already in Sichuan before propaganda czar, Politburo Standing Committee member Li Changchun, could "wake from his slumber." (Note: Zhang, as a young Xinhua reporter, was the first journalist on the scene at the massive Tangshan earthquake of 1976 in which between 250,000 and 600,000 people died.) Surprising Level of Openness -------------- ¶4. (C) Embassy contacts uniformly expressed astonishment at the unfettered access granted to both Chinese and foreign reporters to all disaster areas and at the apparent paucity of Propaganda Department guidelines on news content. This BEIJING 00002458 002 OF 005 relative freedom, they noted with considerable pride, allowed them to publish stories under the bylines of their own reporters rather than relying solely on Xinhua dispatches as propaganda authorities had insisted they do during similar crises in the past. Veteran journalist Zhang Guangyou told PolOff that he and other retired senior cadres affiliated with the liberal journal Yanhuang Chunqiu were so struck by the license given to the media that they called a special meeting to share their views and to discuss how to craft their articles on the coverage for the journal's next issue. In a meeting with POLOFF on June 13, Li Dun (protect),a prominent AIDS legal activist who recently retired from Tsinghua University's Center for the Study of Contemporary China, said that in his view Premier Wen's immediate visit to the disaster area reinforced Party approval for transparency and undercut any directives the Propaganda Department might have issued. Television images of a shaken Wen consoling grieving victims, according to Qin Hui (protect),Tsinghua University social historian, represent a "defining moment" in PRC media history. The norm, he said, has been to present leaders in such situations as heroic figures mobilizing the masses to action. Reporters or Relief Workers? -------------- ¶5. (C) Commenting on the broader impact of the experience in covering the earthquake, several interlocutors noted that their news crews quickly became caught up in the spirit of the rescue operation, spending as much time doing relief work as filing news stories. Fazhi Wanbao's Wang Lin said that the response from his staff wanting to cover the quake was so overwhelming that he had to turn some of them down, instead granting permission for some to take leave and participate as volunteers rather than as journalists. He laid down two conditions for those who went: (1) anyone who made a commitment to report on the disaster could not quit if the going got rough; and (2) saving lives and helping with rescue operations took priority over filing stories. Photographers, he said, were to exercise good taste and respect the dignity of victims. As it turned out, one of his reporters saved a young boy's life by pulling him from the rubble. Cheng Fei of Beijing Youth Daily said he and his colleagues spent a great deal of time helping to rescue survivors, and when they did do reporting, they conveyed their message primarily through photographs. ¶6. (C) Contacts also underscored the unprecedented experience of being able to work alongside foreign reporters as professional colleagues. Wang Lin boasted that his youthful journalists "outperformed" their Western counterparts because of their vigor and physical conditioning, "beating" the foreigners to key sites and putting in longer hours. Veteran journalist Zhang Guangyou said he was "amazed" and immensely pleased at the access given foreign journalists, who "usually are viewed as spies," and hoped this would result in greater cross-cultural understanding. Propaganda Department Reappears -------------- ¶7. (C) After three weeks of relative silence, the Propaganda Department has reportedly begun reasserting control over news content, though contacts provided varying accounts as to the extent of the controls. Foreign media have widely reported that prohibitions have been imposed on reporting that reflects negatively on the Party, such as protests by parents of students killed when their schools collapsed or charges that corruption and unequal allocation of resources were to blame for shoddy construction. Tsinghua's Professor Qin Hui stated that following the initial period of openness, China's media are falling back on old paradigms due to pressure from propaganda officials. In addition to media silence on such "forbidden areas" as the school collapses, comparisons with the Tangshan earthquake and commentary on civil society, Qin said that television images are now focused on Hu Jintao visiting earthquake areas and crowds chanting militaristic slogans, all of which according to Qin are meant to reinforce the power of the Party. However, Zhang Shensi (protect), senior editor at Legal Daily, said media are still allowed to report on some aspects of the school building issue, such as the high number of buildings that collapsed, as long as such stories are "strictly factual" and do not discuss corruption or other systemic problems that led to poor quality construction. Wang Wen (protect),editor of the international forum page for the People's Daily-affiliated newspaper Global Times, cautioned against exaggerating the significance of this return to stricter Propaganda Department oversight, noting that such guidance, intended to protect the Party's image, is so "routine" that it barely makes a ripple BEIJING 00002458 003 OF 005 in media circles. ¶8. (C) Contacts played down Western media reports that the Propaganda Department is recalling reporters from Sichuan as part of a new crackdown. Wang Lin and Zhang Shensi acknowledged that there was an emphasis on winding down the coverage and that media are being discouraged from sending more reporters to quake zones, but both said reporters are not being expelled. Journalists remain in the disaster area, but in greatly reduced numbers, according to our contacts. For example, Fazhi Wanbao and Beijing Youth Daily only have two reporters on site and Caijing has "just a few." Wang Lin noted that there is no longer a need for such heavy coverage now that the rescue phase is over and rebuilding has begun. He also claimed there are still no limits on issues his reporters are allowed to cover. Media Strategies: Journalist Appetites Whetted -------------- -- ¶9. (C) Commenting on Legal Daily's strategy during the quake, Zhang Shensi acknowledged that official papers such as hers did receive some guidance from authorities and have had the least latitude in reporting. Legal Daily, she said, as one of the Party's "mouthpiece" ("hou she") newspapers, is "especially sensitive" to these limits. (Note: Legal Daily is the official paper of the Ministry of Justice). Zhang said that Government guidelines in the early phases of the disaster called for a focus on rescue work, but now the focus is on reconstruction and the transparent use of donations, with official accountability receiving less focus. The Government, she said, now wants the media to shift back to a focus on hosting a "good Olympics." However, the cat may already be out of the bag: Zhang said journalist appetites have been whetted and they now want to report the "full story." "We are journalists, and we don't just want to report what the Government tells us to," she opined. Many journalists are gathering information for future stories that will delve into the larger issues behind the disaster, such as corruption, that may be too sensitive to print right now. In time, especially after the Olympics, it may become easier to write more stories that analyze the tragedy, Zhang said. ¶10. (C) Caijing's Huang said his magazine's strategy was to focus first on rescue efforts and the plight of people through objective, factual reporting, then to reflect on lessons learned. More recently, Caijing has reported on the underlying problems that have been exposed. A Caijing editorial of May 26 argued that China should establish a comprehensive disaster response system to deal with future emergencies, including a plan for safe construction of schools. Huang said propaganda authorities did not respond to the article, surmising that it fell well within the boundaries of permissible content. (Note: The Caijing editorial was cited positively in a Xinhua report on the earthquake.) ¶11. (C) Caijing has now resumed its signature risky investigative reporting with several articles on the sensitive issue of shoddy school construction in its June 9 issue. Huang said the articles were carefully crafted to skirt Propaganda Department restrictions on reporting about parent protests and other issues while technically staying within approved limits. The articles, he said, do not cast blame for the school tragedy and offer constructive advice on future building standards through a series of interviews with construction experts and ordinary citizens. They also lament the scope of the human tragedy and praise the heroic efforts of rescue workers and the Government's handling of the crisis. However, Huang said, anyone who "reads between the lines" will see that the quotes and accompanying photographs send a strong message about the lack of preparation and other aspects of failed Government responsibility. (Comment: China's censors would have to be brain dead to miss the point. Caijing's June 9 cover features a large, graphic, photograph of the remaining corner of a collapsed school building with a headline that reads "Reflections of Concern Over School Buildings." Articles listed under the headline included such titles as "Disaster Reveals Construction Safety Regulations for Public Buildings Not Yet Perfect," "Structural Defects Very Visible" and "Buildings That Received the Most Damage Were in Remote Areas Where People Have Little Influence." Nonetheless, the reporting is not entirely critical, and makes valuable points in the Government's defense such as the fact that many of the collapsed schools themselves replaced mud huts, while also describing the financial difficulties in some poor communities that forced them to cut corners in construction standards.) Reporting "Exceptional" but not a "Turning Point" BEIJING 00002458 004 OF 005 -------------- -------------- ¶12. (C) While our Chinese interlocutors had high praise for what they viewed as the "exceptional" nature of the media's coverage of the earthquake, none saw these developments as a major turning point in China's Party-controlled media system in the near term. In the view of Legal Daily's Zhang, the earthquake coverage marked a new high-water mark in media transparency that would help move China furthe down the path to greater openness over time. She said that the decision to exert tight control over the media during the Tibet crisis n March was a "mistake" and that the Party will likely be more open to media reporting of such incidents in the future. Fazhi Wanbao's Wang Lin told POLOFF that the Party won't change overnight but that these kinds of events have a "cumulative effect." Each major event of this kind brings incremental progress as expectations are raised and experience is gained. People are not the same afterward, he said, and when the next major event comes along they will respond from the baseline established during the previous event. ¶13. (C) Other contacts were less optimistic about the impact of the earthquake coverage. In the view of Caijing's Huang, the media's "liberal approach" to earthquake coverage was highly unusual but does not represent a turning point. The Party can afford to be "very selective," he said. In this case, the Party handled the crisis adroitly, channeling and managing the information flow to its advantage. The earthquake was an "easy target," a huge natural catastrophe and human disaster that could not be covered up. Moreover, the Party needed outside assistance and the earthquake, unlike the Tibet riots, could not be blamed on the Party or Government. In particular, the media transparency indicated a conscious propaganda effort to improve China's international image by comparison with Burma's response to its typhoon disaster. The degree of control in the future will depend on the issue, as propaganda authorities will put the lid on events that are politically sensitive or that threaten stability, Huang asserted. Veteran journalist Zhang Guangyou was the most pessimistic, predicting no change in the Party's approach to media management, because in Zhang's view, the mindset of the new leadership group is fundamentally the same as those who came before: Their focus is on control. Even former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping himself, in spite of his pragmatic policies and leadership style, was "Mao Zedong in a different guise" ("meiyou Mao Zedong de Mao Zedong"),Zhang stated. ¶14. (C) Some contacts said the display of media openness during the earthquake was not so much a turning point as an opportunity to showcase media trends long underway. For example, Hu En (protect),Vice President of CCTV, in a meeting with POLOFF on May 13, the day after the earthquake, stated that the "exceptionally fast" and "open" media response was part of a general trend of improvement in the media since the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) debacle when the Party was criticized for its slow response and cover-up. He noted, in particular, that CCTV went live from the beginning of the quake coverage, which he said was "rare" and one of the indications of media progress and current trends. Cheng Fei of Beijing Youth Daily separately agreed that the relative openness in earthquake reporting in large part reflected trends that have been building for some time, especially the flow of information on the Internet from "citizen journalists." This, he said, was "critical" to keeping the public apprised of the realities on the ground. What appeared in newspapers, he said, "didn't really matter" as people had access to eye-witness descriptions, including videos, some of which were posted to You-Tube. Caijing's Huang also stressed the "huge impact" that the Internet and citizen journalists had on the population's access to information. Nonetheless, he warned, the Party allowed a wide scope of Internet discussion in this case, including some criticism of the Party itself, because Internet chatter in general elicited sympathy and support for the authorities. At the same time, the Party can shut it down whenever it wishes. Internet Commentary Spawns Values Debate -------------- ¶15. (C) The lively Internet commentary also generated intense "public" debate over values and philosophical issues that eclipsed discussion of the earthquake itself, according to some contacts. Wang Wen of the Global Times told POLOFF that issues raised by two episodes in particular had become the talk of the town, at least in intellectual circles. In the first, a teacher who ran from his collapsing school in Sichuan, abandoning his students to save himself, was excoriated by incensed readers after he posted an article on BEIJING 00002458 005 OF 005 the Internet defending his actions. The public tide turned in a more positive direction when he apologized for his actions in a debate aired by Hong Kong's popular PRC-affiliated television station, Phoenix TV. His argument on the moral issue of balancing one's duty to society and one's duty to oneself quickly became a hot topic on Chinese bulletin boards and blogs. (Note: The teacher subsequently lost his job.) The second issue was generated by the Shanghai-based writer Yu Qiuyu, who Wang Wen characterized as "the most famous cultural figure in China." Yu posted an article on his blog criticizing parents who had protested against poor school construction. Yu's assertion that these protests handed foreign media yet one more issue they could exploit to malign China brought an overwhelmingly negative response from other netizens. The ensuing debate, however, raised questions about the importance of Government accountability versus the importance of improving China's image. Some netizens accused Yu of placing more emphasis on boosting China's image than on holding the Government accountable for corruption and other reported lapses of responsibility. Lively discussion of the issues raised by these two incidents was a key theme of conversations overheard by PolOffs at an informal gathering of intellectuals on June 14. ¶16. (C) Professor Qin of Tsinghua also noted to PolOffs the prevalence of discussions regarding moral values and philosophical issues generated by the earthquake, especially on the Internet. He cited the example of another controversy, in this case prompted by comments by Shanghai academic Zhu Xueqin in an article in the envelope-pushing Guangdong paper Nanfang Dushibao. Zhu used a classical phrase, "Tianqian" (literally, "wrath of heaven"),to implicitly raise the issue of the moral culpability of officials in relation to the impact of the earthquake. (Note: This phrase was used in imperial times to assign blame for natural disasters to moral lapses by the emperor, which required his self-reflection and an apology to the people to set the natural order right.) Readers interpreted Zhu's comment to mean that Sichuan citizens were being punished by an angry Deity for bad behavior. This incident also generated an Internet debate about official accountability and responsibility in the face of such disasters. RANDT