China embraces media freedom

Yesterday a junior military officer came rushing up to us at the Yinghua Chemical Plant where rescue teams were still trying to dig survivors out of the rubble.

"I am the Press Officer for the Henan Fire Brigade," he said. "Our teams are trying to save lives here. Please ask me anything you want. You are free to film and go anywhere."

It might not sound exceptional to you, but this is China and believe me, it's amazing. A few weeks ago, in the wake of our reporting of the Tibetan uprising, foreign journalists were being described as the "western Goebbels Nazi media".

Officious local party bosses routinely try to stop us reporting in China, but the earthquake has jolted the country into a new, more open, less hostile mood.

Let me put this in context: after the Tangshan earthquake in 1976, in which 240,000 people died, China refused all foreign aid and did not allow journalists to visit the city for seven years.

Last Monday, the Central Publicity Department issued a directive to all Chinese media that they should only carry reports on the earthquake from Xinhua, the official news agency.

Chinese media are government controlled, and receive such orders all the time. But, for the first time, editors simply ignored the instruction, sending hundreds of reporters to the scene.

The Chinese journalists were determined to get here, saying that if their stories were spiked they'd work as volunteers helping earthquake victims instead.

Very soon, the government realised that they could not control information as they had done previously, so decide to embrace the new freedom.

"We no longer take calamities as classified, confidential secrets, or 'negative information,' and feel worried night and day because of possible rumours," said a People's Daily editorial.

Why have they opened up like this? First, I suspect they realised that the way they handled coverage of the Tibetan uprising in March was a disaster.

The refusal to allow foreign reporters into areas where riots and demonstrations had occurred, generated bad feeling and bad publicity. It meant that we were more dependent on reports from activist groups based abroad.

If we had been able to report more effectively first hand, we would have seen that some - by no means all, but some - of the points the government made were valid.

Then there was the torch relay. The attempt to pretend that nothing was going wrong, as the torch was attacked by protestors in London and France, was futile. It made China look like a defensive, old-fashioned communist state not a coming super-power.

And then there's Burma. China wants to be a modern country, and any suggestion that the government rules like the secretive generals in Naypidaw who care everything for their own power and nothing for their people, would be embarassing.

Yesterday's ceremonies of national mourning were unprecedented - it's the first time the Chinese flag has flown at half mast for ordinary Chinese citizens not high ranking Communist officials.

So, as I prepare to leave the earthquake zone, I am distressed by the human suffering I've seen, but buoyed up by the efficiency of the Chinese relief effort and the new openness I have witnessed.

Thousands of middle class volunteers have spent their own money on food, clothes and water for the victims. The government appears to have understood that coverage of a natural disaster does not have to be seen as not bad publicity, but can be a genuine attempt to show the world how people are suffering.

And that can only be good for the victims who will need help and support for months or years to come.

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