Congress is Biggest Story But Not All Can Tell It

BEIJING --- Just to confirm that Chinese media exists principally as a mouthpiece of the Party, the entire industry has been placed in a state of limbo as China prepares for the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party that opens in Beijing on November 8.

The Congress will elect China’s new leaders at national level, leading to policy paralysis at all levels of the propaganda sector. Senior officials at TV and radio stations and print organs have been instructed to remain at their desks to oversee comprehensive coverage of the event and to await new instructions.

The effect on China’s international media exchanges has been direct. Regional organization CASBAA has been forced to postpone its China conference, while DISCOP has also decided to delay its first format conference partly because local authorities are unwilling to take actions that might be misinterpreted by higher levels.

Distributors are also reporting a reduction in PRC program acquisitions as budgets are frozen ahead of personnel re-shuffles and new key relationships expected once the new national leadership is in position. Also affected by the Congress are China TV Program Agency and other state-owned program exporters that have declined to exhibit at the upcoming MIPCOM event in Cannes.

Increasing jitters is the recent sentencing of followers of the Falun Gong sect in Changchun and other unauthorized use of satellite communications networks and ground relay stations. The Changchun trial is the highest profile case to result from a crackdown instigated after several instances in which the Falun Gong sect have hijacked TV networks to spread their propaganda. (See related articles).

According to Xinhua News Agency, the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) has admitted that “there are instances of signals transmitted to unrelated satellites seriously interfering with the business of lawful communications users” and that a current “Strike Hard” campaign seeks to curb "harmful interferences".

Given the apparent impunity with which the sect has managed to disrupt state broadcasts over an extended period of time and the high profile exposure the actions have received in the official media, woe betide any station director whose signals are compromised during the Congress.

Under the new directive, licensed satellite communication services and facilities must be registered with the relevant authorities and illegal use must stop immediately. Violators will be prosecuted and their equipment confiscated.

As noted following the death of Deng Xiaoping, now is most definitely not the time for media operators to be high profile or to push ahead with new experiments. For state owned media, now is the time to ensure basic Party obligations are faithfully followed and to make sure that absolutely nothing interferes with total coverage of the leadership succession.

As usual, the rest of the world can do nothing but wait. But, the rest of the world is starting to do its waiting inside the country rather than outside and with Chinese co-operation rather than without it.

Despite strict regulations governing foreign media reporting in China, an increasing number of international media organizations are establishing regional bases on the mainland at the expense of other offices in the region and with the appropriate improvements in access to the Chinese government information machine.

The Chicago Tribune closed down its Tokyo bureau and opened an office in Beijing last year and the trend is now clearly directly affecting Hongkong as the SAR’s Information Service Department reports that the Washington Post moved its bureau to Shanghai, while Japan’s Fuji TV Network and Sankei Shimbun have both moved to Beijing, all since June.

While Beijing may welcome foreign media units to operate directly under its jurisdiction rather than more troublesome HK regulations, the moves by organizations largely serving overseas markets contrasts with the frustration of those trying to offer new and independent news and information services to the mainland audience.

For example, Phoenix Information Channel, has threatened to pull the plug if it does not receive crucial landing rights before March 2003 as it struggles to maintain an annual budget of US$20 million.

According to the China News Research Center, the 24-hour Information channel is banking on a more favorable political climate following the upcoming Party Congress when it hopes to receive similar rights as those granted to Phoenix TV’s entertainment channel last year (CMM passim).

In short, it is compulsory for state media to report the Congress to the virtual exclusion of all else and recommended for foreign media to open offices in China if they want to report on the Congress (and other developments) for their foreign audiences. As for non-Party media wanting to report on the Congress for Chinese audiences, March suddenly seems remarkably close.