China's power seen in media reach

While the conference was to discuss the future of the media, there was much interest in the situation of foreign journalists working in China. There has been some relaxation in conjunction with the Beijing Olympics last summer but the situation is still far from ideal, with three journalists working for the Japanese news agency Kyodo being attacked in their hotel room by plain-clothes men while covering a rehearsal for the 60th anniversary celebrations.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a keynote address at the opening of the conference, pledged to protect the rights of international news organizations reporting in China.

“We will continue to make government affairs public,” he said, “enhance information distribution, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of foreign news organizations and reporters, and facilitate foreign media coverage of China in accordance with China's laws and regulations.”

News coverage of China has exploded in recent years as China's global role has expanded. The Chinese president also acknowledged that the foreign media had played an “important role” in telling the world about the changes in China and called on the media to promote world peace.

Beijing has become much more sophisticated in recent years about how the media can help project Chinese influence around the world. It has announced plans to set up media companies that will compete with the world's media giants, including News Corporation and Time Warner. Hopefully, in the process, it will understand the need to loosen its control over the media.

The effort to project Chinese soft power is going on even in remote corners of the world. Only last month, state-owned CCTV began Russian-language broadcasts in Kyrgyzstan.

China's increasing exposure to the international media as well as its own growing media presence is a trend that simply reflects the country's growing importance. Hopefully, as time goes on, it will internalize the values of the global media rather than just see the media as a propaganda tool to serve the interests of the government.

Frank.ching@gmail.com

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