So from 1 March you can't be a journalist in China without a press card. Sounds fair enough.
So says Wang Yong at Shanghai Daily. A couple of excerpts from his opinion piece today:
Only those who abide by the law, have a certain level of education, and are employed by a legal news organisation will be able to apply for a press card.
Sounds fair enough. But where does it leave freelances? Surely this wipes out the whole sector of people who are not employed by a news organisation. And how can young journalists gain experience?
I freelance occasionally. It's innocuous stuff like travel features for 8Days and That's Shanghai. Am I really now banned from doing so? Who's going to enforce it? Maybe I should have got my fake press card in Bangkok for $5.
If the industry fails to regulate itself, the government will step in. The Western model of free entry has its problems. Without government supervision, the public has little remedy for the excesses of news organisations.
What problems? What excesses? The problems of people entering journalism who are not devoted party members, who might actually want to expose the truth on occasions rather than write whitewashes like Wang Yong? The excesses of fair criticism and varied opinion?
Wang asserts later in his article that the measures are primarily designed to root out corruption among journalists. I've heard stories about hacks accepting envelopes of money as they walk into press conferences on condition that they give a good write-up.
But there's another kind of corruption: a corruption of the whole role of the journalist and the writer. And that, I think is where this leads.
Posted by Sendover at February 21, 2005 01:05 PM | TrackBackI got a contemporary press card when working practised in XinMing Evening Post.A press card is nothing but an identity to prove you are a journalist.Unfortunately,some people make use of this identity to extort the interviewees.
As for freelancer,some of their writings are fake.But some freelancers can write much better than the journalists working in the newspaper.Newspaper will give them contemporary press cards before interview.
I can tell you what I have learnt in the newspaper.Meeting,meeting,endless meeting.
We have a big meeting every friday that all journalists in the department had to attend,on which the chief editors what's the big news happen in China in a week.And then,those things cannot be written,like Zhaoziyang died.
What we can do to this system?
It sounds unfortunate... but then again, you wouldn't need a press card to write a travel story int he first hand. I'd be surprised if they asked you for your press card to interview a hotel manager...
I've been to a number of press conferences in Shanghai, and all I get asked is for my business card.
The enveloppes filled with money... well, saddly, it's common practice in China. I went to the Disney store opening in Xintiandi, and they dropped 500RMB in all the press kits. You can't give it back or else you'll make someone lose face. Kinda weird.
In China, I would recon that working without a press card or journalist visa is better. You get more freedom, and you don't have to drag along your govwernment guide/translator everywhere, or ask for permission to go to the bathroom...
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