Thu, November 12, 2009
Some officials use excuses not to talk to Chinese journalists, and the most common one is making the reporter wait. They know very few journalists can wait an entire afternoon for a phone interview that may never come.
So journalists under deadline pressures have to use unconventional methods to get news. This includes taping interviews with officials without their knowledge, because it is almost impossible to pin them down for comment when they know they are being recorded.
China Central Television reporters received a blunt rejection last week when they tried to talk to a Shanghai official about the planned Disneyland project. In the end, the cameraman got a quote from the official, by using a hidden camera.
Those in power should speak when they owe an explanation to their people. But it is universally acknowledged among local journalists that one had better acquire some personal intimacy with some government officials if he or she wants to get some information ahead of rival journalists.
But once journalists achieve that intimacy with officials and get their news on time, they also jeopardize the balance in their stories because they need to keep their informants happy.
Only a few journalists have been able to report news ahead of their rivals and still maintain a good relationship with their sources. For most little potatoes in the business, their only choice seems to be hit-and-run: get the quotes and never talk to the official again.
Beijing-based journalist Wang Jun said during a speech at Peking University last week: "The ultimate goal for the journalists is to improve conversation between the public and the government. In order to do so, journalists should try their best to get close to the truth."
When secret cameras and recording devices point to officials, what we see is the lack of trust for some officials in power.
