IFJ Urges Free Reporting of Chinese Politburo Changes

April 13, 2012

IFJ Urges Free Reporting of Chinese Politburo Changes

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is disappointed by the manner in which China’s Central Propaganda Department has censored media reporting on the political scandal involving former Chongqing Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai and former Vice-Mayor Wang Lijun.

On April 10, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China announced that Bo had been suspended from the Central Committee Politburo and was suspected of being involved in serious discipline violations. On March 15, Wang Lijun was also demoted from his position in Chongqing.

At the same time, Bo’s wife Gu Kaili and a staff member employed by his family, Zhang Xiaojun, are under suspicion of involvement in the death of Neil Heywood, an English business person who died in China in November 2011. Xinhua News Agency, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, has reported that Gu and Heywood had fought over economic interests. The case had now passed to China’s Ministry of Justice for investigation.

However, media reports in China have not provided the reason for Bo’s suspension from the Politburo, nor explained which disciplinary procedures he had violated.
“As usual, we were ordered to use the official Xinhua article as the basis of our reports, but this time was different,” one journalist told IFJ. “The number of articles that media outlets were able publish was also decided by the Central Propaganda Department.

“Furthermore, the editorial article also had to be in line with the message carried by the Central Committee.”

“The Propaganda Department has very successfully manipulated media reporting of the Bo Xilai case.”

When the controversial case of the dismissal of Chongqing political heavyweights Bo and Wang erupted in early February 2012, the media was ordered not to publish individual news reporting about the pair. Similarly, all website operators were ordered to delete all rumours relating to them from their websites.

However, as the Chinese Central Authority did not release information immediately on the case, as required under the country’s Disclosure Information Law, the internet was flooded with rumours on the topic. A number of netizens received administrative punishment for forwarding these “rumours”. Three major Chinese websites were also suspended from allow comments on their sites by users for three days.
“Disclosure of Information is the key to strong and transparent governance, in particular for stories of great public interest,” IFJ Asia-Pacific Office said.

“The Media has a duty to report and investigate such cases, rather than merely republishing information released by authorities.”

The IFJ urges China’s Central Politburo to better respect the duty of the media to keep the public informed, rather than simply act as an instrument of state propaganda organs.

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries

Find the IFJ on Twitter: @ifjasiapacific

Find the IFJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/IFJAsiaPacific

ENDS

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