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Openness to foreign media to remain after Games

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-30 20:01

Since the 2008 Beijing International Media Center (BIMC) opened on July 8, more foreign journalists have been filing applications for individual interviews regarding sensitive issues. These included pollution, the one-child policy, AIDS and military expenditure, among others.

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"Some of their questions are so sensitive that we have to endeavor to convince the officials to take them," said Zhu Shouchen, BIMC vice director.

"Although it's far from perfect, China's attitudes toward foreign journalists and negative reports have changed substantially during my stay over the past 14 months," said Joseph, a 35-year-old German journalist in Beijing.

"The procedures that we have to undergo before conducting an interview have been greatly simplified," he added.

"There was no limit regarding the topic and the selection of common folks as my interviewees," said Jane, an Economist journalist, who went to the Sichuan earthquake areas months ago. "There is not even any local official present during my interview."

In response to some Western human rights organizations' claims that to interview in China is dangerous, Liu said they were defaming the country "with stereotypes constructed from hearsay and prejudice in their mind, regardless of the reality.

"They are blind to China's democratic progress and efforts in enhancing media transparency over the past few years," he said. "Foreign journalists in China will see the real situation with their own eyes."

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