Heavy-handed approach to media can misfire
When Beijing pitched its bid to stage the Olympic Games, one issue was whether the media would be able to report the event freely. A bid official promised that journalists would have 'complete freedom to report'. Seven years later, and less than two weeks before the Games start, international media already in Beijing for the Games are far from convinced. The issue looms even larger after clashes between police and Hong Kong media covering chaotic scenes during queuing in Beijing for Olympic tickets over the past two days. If similar incidents happen again it could spell a public relations disaster for an event meant to showcase modern China to the world.
The circumstances of yesterday's incident should never have arisen. The authorities were unprepared to cope with the tens of thousands who queued day and night in hot and dusty conditions. Frayed tempers, disputes and disorderly scenes were to be expected. But there was little sign of a proactive response, such as keeping people informed about the prospects of getting tickets and intervening to prevent attempts at queue-jumping.
Huge police reinforcements could not conceal the lack of organisation. Worryingly, the reactive approach to crowd control included attempts to obstruct Hong Kong media from covering the chaotic scenes. That has nothing to do with maintaining public order. Clashes between police and the media, which led to injury to a policeman and a South China Morning Post photographer being briefly detained, are therefore to be deeply regretted.
Beijing officials have frequently reiterated assurances of media freedom in covering the Games. Yesterday's event is arguably part of the assignment. The Olympics have aroused nationwide patriotic fervour. The last opportunity for ordinary Chinese to get tickets is a significant media event. The focus of the police should have been on maintaining order, without interfering with the promised freedom of the media to report bad news as well as good.
China won international praise for slashing red tape and allowing local and foreign journalists to report freely in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake. That raised hopes that the authorities would relax bureaucratic restrictions hindering preparations for Games media coverage.
The Olympics, however, are a carefully stage-managed event. Beijing has a duty to strive to ensure they are peaceful. Officials cite security worries for inflexible bureaucratic rules for the media and eleventh-hour uncertainty surrounding arrangements for coverage. But there are concerns that such heavy-handedness is also aimed at ensuring the media conveys only positive images of the Olympics and modern China. If so, yesterday's incident shows it is an approach fraught with the danger of producing the opposite result.
