BEIJING saw the opening of a two-day World Media Summit last October, hosted by Xinhua News Agency and jointly initiated by News Corporation, Associated Press, Reuters, ITAR-TASS, Kyodo News, BBC, Turner Broadcasting System and Google. Participants representing some 170 news agencies, radio, television, newspaper, magazine and online media came from over 70 countries and regions.
With the themes of Cooperation, Action, Win-Win and Development, the first-ever media summit discussed the status quo of modern scribing and the developing trends and challenges they are facing. It concluded with a World Media Summit Joint Statement, essentially a consensus on responding to challenges, promoting cooperation and achieving fair and balanced coverage.
The attitude the Chinese government bears to foreign media has changed obviously in the past couple of years. Before 2007, overseas media was expected to act in conformity with the Regulations Concerning Foreign Journalists and Permanent Offices of Foreign News Agencies issued back in 1990. Overseas media was required to apply to related offices in charge of foreign affairs before coming to the mainland to conduct interviews.
To facilitate the hosting of foreign journalists flocking in for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists during the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period were put into effect on January 1, 2007. According to this set of regulations, foreign media could interview whomever they wished by simply getting the permission of interviewees. However, emergency events that took place a few months prior to the Olympics changed the stance of the government rather than its regulations. On March 14, 2008, a riot broke out in Tibet and a news blackout was imposed which kept foreign journalists out of the region until 12 days later. This measure was widely criticized domestically and abroad, and the Chinese reports on this event were questioned in some foreign media.
Lessons must be learned. When a deadly earthquake hit Sichuan two months later, foreign journalists were approved from the very first moment to conduct interviews in disaster-stricken areas. The conveniences foreign media temporarily enjoyed during the Olympic Games were written into the Regulations Concerning Foreign Journalists and Permanent Offices of Foreign News Agencies, which permanently superceded the previous regulations on October 17, 2008. The latest regulations allow foreign journalists to go anywhere in China for any interview that interests them.
When riots broke out in Xinjiang on July 5, 2009, the Chinese government facilitated foreign journalists to go to the scene on the following day. And during the celebration of the PRC’s 60th anniversary, a news center was established to provide professional services to media organizations. Foreign media’s needs were considered when making up the schedule.
While the global community is looking forward to greater in-depth coverage and a more direct understanding of the nation, China is also trying to make its own voice heard, which requires a strong, supportive, media industry. The government carried out a strategy in 2009 involving two sets of measures. One was to form super media groups through trans-industry and regional mergers. The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) announced last April that in three to five years it would breed six to seven media giants by transforming, restructuring and listing state-owned media. The value of these entities were expected to exceed RMB 10 billion each in both assets and annual sales. The other is to expand the current leading media like Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television (CCTV).
With an all-around upgrading, Xinhua launched on July 1, 2009 its first TV programs designed to bring a fresh angle on current events to English-speaking audiences. Besides Chinese International, English, French and Spanish channels, CCTV inaugurated the Arabic Channel last July, catering to 300 million people in 22 Arabic countries. In addition, the TV powerhouse plans to have 11 international channels in seven languages by 2012.
Among a range of professional international media, China International Publishing Group (CIPG), established in October 1949, is renowned as one of the earliest and biggest. It publishes over 3,000 titles annually, operates 30 magazines and 30 websites in some 20 languages, with a readership covering over 180 countries and regions. CIPG is also a leader in selling copyrights abroad. The series Chinese Culture and Civilization, done in cooperation with Yale University, is the largest ever joint publishing project between China and the U.S. Of its 70 plus titles, several have won publication awards both in China and the U.S. Against the tide of the financial crisis, CIPG sailed through 2008 with stable growth in copyright exports, increasing its royalty incomes by 7.1 percent over the previous year.
CIPG started to implement a localization strategy in 2004. This magazine, China Today, has set up branch offices in Mexico City and Cairo to explore markets respectively for the Spanish and Arabic editions. Other magazines under CIPG like People’s China (Japanese language), China (Russian), and Beijing Review (English) have also launched offices in target countries.
The philosophy of localization has also been adopted by many other media. China Daily, the dominant English daily newspaper, launched a U.S. edition last February. Global Times, subordinated to the nation’s largest newspaper, the People’s Daily, started to publish an English edition last April. Last October, Xinhua, CCTV and the Shanghai Media Group (SMG) started to provide free mobile news to iPhone users in the U.S. via an American partner.
The Chinese media is ready to embrace the world, remarked Liu Changle, CEO of Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite Television. He thought the World Media Summit was the best indicator of that and also showed the clear thinking of Chinese policy makers.
Taipei-based China Times commented in the article “China Looking for a Louder Voice”: “China initiated the summit because, as a big emerging country, it requires a voice that carries as far as its economic power. On several occasions when the country’s core interests were at stake, the government’s position and vital facts failed to be reflected by international mainstream coverage.”
The French newspaper Nouvelles D’Europe celebrated that the rally of media magnets at the summit made the event a media Olympics and a wonderful opportunity for exchange. As for the efforts the Chinese government has made in the interests of information transparency, David Schlesinger, Editor-in-Chief of Reuters, believes China’s rapid progress is worthy of praise. Peter Tichauer, editor-in-chief of China Contact in Germany, said every department of the Chinese central government has introduced a press spokesperson, and shows greater willingness to help foreign media in their work in China.
There seems to be every reason for optimism with respect to the domestic media industry. Rupert Murdoch is certain about China’s media industry, which, he believes, has the very best prospects for expanding both international influence and profit.
