FOCUS: Beijing`s media `Olympics` buttresses China`s soft power expansion

BEIJING, Oct. 9 Kyodo -
Touted as the ''Olympics'' of the media industry, the inaugural World Media
Summit being held in Beijing is described by Chinese organizers as a
''nongovernmental'' platform for major media organizations to explore ways to
cooperate and survive in the digital age.
Over three days through Saturday, the summit has top executives of major
groups, including Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., Tom Curley, chief
executive of the Associated Press, and Satoshi Ishikawa, president of Kyodo
News, gathering to brainstorm on how to ''survive, develop and achieve
cooperation and a win-win situation'' in the face of challenges posed by the
financial crisis and network technologies, according to one description of the
event.
That the conference is organized by China's state-run Xinhua News Agency, whose
President Li Congjun is the former deputy chief of the country's Central
Propaganda Department, appears to be just an inconvenient, albeit glaring,
fact.
The summit's emphasis, organizers spelled out on its website, is on the nuts
and bolts of global media and, more pertinently, on its survival against the
current context of the global financial crisis.
The focus was further underlined in a keynote speech by Chinese President Hu
Jintao on Friday in which he called on international media companies to work
together to overcome difficulties posed by a changing environment.
While Hu also pledged in his speech to safeguard the ''legitimate rights and
interests of foreign news organizations and reporters'' in accordance with
Chinese laws, his address largely focused on the need for international media
to seek ''common ground while shelving differences.''
''Facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges, media organizations around
the world should conform to the trends of the times, go forward together, and
strive to contribute to building a harmonious world,'' Hu said.
Predictably, the fact that an international media meeting is being hosted in a
country with a tightly controlled media environment, and which focuses on
economics and largely ignores media freedom and information access, sits
uncomfortably with China watchers.
David Bandurski of Hong Kong University's China Media Project, in a blog entry
on the project's website Thursday, called media representatives at the summit
an ''audience at court'' who were partaking in an obvious strategy by China to
exercise influence over global media agendas.
''This (summit) is part of the strategy of the Central Committee,'' Bandurski
told Kyodo News. ''It is aimed at increasing the influence of Xinhua and
enhancing China's influence globally,'' he said.
In his blog, he also pointed out that Li, who is executive chairman of the
Beijing summit, had in an article published in February in the official Chinese
Journalist magazine saying the summit was a directive from the Central
Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to ''raise the capacity of Xinhua News
Agency'' and ''make its voice heard.''
''China doesn't want to destroy the current 'news and information order.' It
wants to redraw its borders and take a larger chunk of the territory for
itself,'' Bandurski wrote. ''That is why the World Media Summit itself is
listed as a critical strategic measure for strengthening Xinhua News Agency's
global influence in an article Li Congjun himself wrote.''
While less scathing in their criticism, others such as Human Rights Watch had
earlier called on participants to use the opportunity to push for press
freedom.
''Without a candid discussion about the difference between genuine media and
propaganda, the need to stop harassing and abusing Chinese and foreign
journalists, and the importance of reliable, real-time information from inside
China, the summit runs the risk of eroding rather than defending media
freedoms,'' Asia advocacy director Sophie Richardson said in a statement
Wednesday.
True to their journalistic leanings, most of the summit's co-organizers invited
to address participants Friday did not pass over the chance to raise the touchy
topic, while remaining polite to their host.
Largely focusing on the theme of overcoming digital challenges, many of the
speakers wove oblique, if not direct, references to transparency and media
freedoms into their speeches and warned that openness was just as critical for
the growth of media.
News Corp.'s Murdoch urged the country to open its ''digital door'' much as it
had practiced an open-door policy economically decades earlier, saying it was
vital for the growth of Chinese companies.
''China will ultimately decide its own fate, but unless the digital door is
opened, opportunities will be lost and potential will not be realized,''
Murdoch said.
More directly addressing the issue was Reuters Editor-in-Chief David
Schlesinger who titled his address ''Transparency and the role of media in
China'' and called for more transparency regarding the release of official
information, particularly economic statistics, and equal treatment for both
local Chinese and foreign journalists.
''All involved need to help the media help society by accepting that while
openness, transparency and accountability may lead to momentary discomfort and
sometimes embarrassment, they are ultimately worthwhile and, in fact, are a
precondition to a truly healthy, stable and successful system,'' Schlesinger
said.
==Kyodo