Monday, October 22, 2007

beijing2008.cn Covering the Beijing Olympics? Pity whoever has to get permission to cover the torch relay!

When Beijing was appointed to host the 2008 Olympic Games, it promised that foreign media would have the same ability to report as in previous Olympics; no less, no more. Some human rights organizations have been trying to push the envelope by suggesting China should also give its domestic media similar freedoms -- but that spin could only work among people who have no clue about China. (Mind you, that's still a lot of people.)

Simply delivering on China's original promise is hard enough, I was told by an insider of one of the larger news operations, because of the way this country is organized. This person's news organization is bringing in hundreds of reporters, and it wants to broadcast from over 100 locations in China -- just as like it did for Olympics in other nations.

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Unfortunately, China is run mostly on a local level. That means this news organization (and probably a few others too) must get broadcast permission not once, but 100 times. Every village where a marathon passes, every district that is involved in the games, wants to have its own say. You can get that done, but you need to invite 110 local governments to dinner parties and drink loads of Chinese liquor. And you have to do it fast, since more are waiting.

The central authorities cannot really avoid that hurdle, unless they would send their leaders to get drunk with the local authorities. Nobody really likes this job, but in China's current situation local authorities are masters in their own house.

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