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The Power and Powerlessness of a Press Card

2010-10-08 - florence

Hu Yong

(Editor note: This article is originally published in a Taiwanese Newspaper, Wangbao, in Chinese. The author, Hu Yong, is an Associate Professor from the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University, one of China’s first research scholars in the field of network and new media.)

Mainland reporter from "the Economic Observer", Qiu Ziming, was under order of arrest by the public security system due to his reporting on the inside story of some listed companies. Subsequently, reporter Ah Liang from Qianlong website was under Laiyang police investigation in Shandong province after publishing critical reports on a local private corporation. Leaving aside their act of conduct during the process of investigating the companies, the first trouble they had to encounter before the process was that their identity as reporters was being questioned.

The vice president of one newspaper wrote an article on his blog with a rather shocking title, “The ‘Wanted’ Qiu Ziming has no legal journalist status”. He searched for Qiu Ziming from the General Administration of Press and Publication enquiry system and got the result of “There is no such press registration”.

What is a Press identity then? So important and yet so hard to obtain?

A Press identity of life and death influence

China's vocational qualification system was introduced in 2003, and the Press and Publication Administration issued the “Measures for the Administration of Press Cards” in January 2005. It was then amended in August 2009, which clearly stated that news reporting activities in mainland China are only for journalists holding a valid press card.

For people working in news organizations, the press card issue is not only about the right to legal protection during news reporting, it is sometimes matter of life and death. On 10th January, 2007, when China Trade News reporter Lan Chengzhang was interviewing in a Coal Mine in Datong, Shanxi Province, he was judged as a fake reporter by the mine owner who accused him of not having a press card issued by the General Administration of Press and Publication. Lan was then beaten to death. Surprisingly, the first thing the local government did after the event was not resolving the case or sending condolences to the deceased’s family, but rather to issue a notice of “Cracking down on fake reporters and false news”. It reads, “Whoever does not hold a valid press card certified by the Press and Publication Administration is a fake journalist. And reporting news by fake journalists is an illegal act.” The above is a formal notice from the local government, condemning all journalists without a press card as fake journalists and their news illegal. What a ridiculous wonder in the history of Chinese journalism!

Why is strange news not considered strange in China? One of the reasons is that fake journalists is a serious problem in China. Director of the Press and Publication Administration Liu Binjie even said once, “Whenever and wherever fake reporters or fake publications are found, they should be cracked down upon on the spot immediately.” If what he said is valid, then the Datong Crackdown was justified by the officials. The question is: is it justifiable to gang-beat or order arrest merely because a press card is missing?

The authority controlling all the news media in China has actually attributed to one of the reasons for the rise of fake reporters. All news media needs approval to register and accept party-led guidance. Press cards are issued by the state, reflecting the state's strict measure to reporters’ eligibility. Thus press cards are scarce resources, adding a certain kind of privilege to the identity of journalists. The authoritative nature of the Chinese media has led to a common belief among the Chinese citizens that journalists have the ability to help solving problems. Moreover, many problems in China are hard to solve in reality, even they do appear to have a channel to be solved under official rhetoric. In desperate situation, people can only resort to the media for help so as to arouse attention from the wider society and higher-ranking officials, hoping that they can help solve the problems. Owing to this, many of the journalists with official press cards are seen to be saviors for the people. No wonder there are so many fake reporters taking advantage of the status.

Suppression of citizen journalists

However, with rapid development of the new media, the practice that reports or commentators should have qualifications becomes less adorned. For example, without a press card, can anyone release information to the web when he/she has witnessed an event? Under China’s special media environment, many people are not full-time reporters but netizens who have a camera and a blog. When traditional media is being silenced, the people become participants of events with significant impact. Until then, what is the use of a piece of paper press card? If China continues to strictly follow the previous system, citizen reporters will always remain illegal in status.

Again, in 2009, after the revision of the “Measures for the Administration of Press Cards,” one official who is in charge of newspapers and magazines from the Press and Publication Administration stressed again when meeting with journalists that, “commercial websites are not news organizations and are not approved the legal right to report and release news. Therefore they cannot interview or investigate in any news event. The so called ‘citizen reporters’ are mostly illegal and are not allowed to report news. Interviewees can refuse to be interviewed and can report them to the officials.” Well then, the local police in Laiyang, Shandong, have every reason to chase after Qianlong website reporter, Ah Liang.

After all, in the mainland, whether you are a journalist is not defined by yourself, nor can your institution prove you one, only the state can.