China: New Vision of Video media – the Power and Powerlessness of a Press Card

(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", Chou 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 web was under police investigation after publishing criticism on a private corporate. 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" Chou Ziming has no legal journalist status’. He searched for Chou Ziming from the General Administration of Press and Publicity 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 "Certificate Management journalists approach" in January 2005. It was then amended in August 2009, which clearly stated regulations on the proprietary for reporting news activities 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 County, he was judged as a counterfeited reporter by the mine owner who accused him of not having a press card issued by the General Administration of Press and Publicity. Lan was then beaten to death. Surprisingly, the first thing the local 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 counterfeited journalist. And reporting news by counterfeited 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 counterfeited journalists is a serious trend in China. Director of the Press and Publication Administration, Liu Binjie even said once, “Whenever and wherever counterfeited reporters or fake publications are found, they should be beaten on the spot immediately.” If what he said is true, then the Datong Crackdown was justified by the officials. The question is: is it justifiable to gang fight 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 counterfeited 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 resolve to the media for help so as to arouse attention from the wider society and higher rank officials, hoping that they can help solve the problems. Owing to this, many of the journalists with official press cards are seen to be angels for the people. No wonder there are so many counterfeited reporters taking advantage of the status.

Suppression of citizen journalists

However, with rapid development of the new media, the practice that reports or commentaries should be sub-qualified 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 remind illegal in status.

Again, in 2009, after the revise of the "Measures for the Administration of journalists card," Secretary for 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 “net 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 Shandong Laiyang have every reason to chase after ‘Qianlong web’ 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.