大国的悲哀：中国媒体集体失声
尽管号称是世界上拥有最多媒体和日报的国家，但是中国在很多国际新闻的报道上却集体失语。
这一点从媒体对我们的邻居和中国在亚洲的好朋友巴基斯坦的报道上就可以看出来。这个我在亚洲的盟国有大规模的示威、爆炸事件、反对派领袖被逮捕，示威者被杀害。这一次出事的是巴 基斯坦。但尽管地缘接近而且有重大利益关联，多数中国报纸读者只能满足于干巴巴的、有时甚至是不准确的事件报道。没有独立的现场报道，没有提及中国在那些 国家的战略利益的深度分析。与国内新闻报道相比，差距惊人。
中国的国内新闻报道正处于黄金时代。庞大而日益增长的新闻来源和新一代的新闻工作者不断扩大容许报道的领域。不到三十年前，中国只有几十家报纸，全都是国营的。根据一份调查，在2005年，中国有两千家以上的报纸和九千家杂志，提供国内事件的更深入报道。
但中国读者可以从主流媒体上获得的外国报道仍然十分有限。只有少数保守的、国营的出版机构在外国有常驻办公室和通讯记者。即使是这些出版机构，也是使用海外的自由新闻记者，或者偶尔派出自己的记者，十分依赖外国出版机构的出版物，并小心避免敏感话题。
维持海外办事处的少数媒体包括新华社、《人民日报》、中央电视台、中国国际广播电台。没有一家以积极报道和调查国内事件著称的出版物。新闻媒体批评家表示，缺乏独立有力的（海外）报道，结果之一就是大部分中国新闻读者对世界的认知与政府的政策和宣传十分接近。
北京人民大学新闻学教授喻国明（Yu Guoming）表示，“总的来说，中国的国际报道就是中国外交的镜子。作为政府喉舌，它们的国际报道和政府的外交相关联。”“因此我们真正讨论的是中国的外交，而不是媒体。”
例如，没有中国出版物探究中国在巴基斯坦错综复杂的利益。据一些巴基斯坦人估计，该国60%的武器是北京提供的。它们也没有深度探究中国在瓜达尔建造的深水港的用途，它和中国在缅甸的一个类似项目一起助北京向中东和印度洋投射海军力量。
中国对巴基斯坦的报道通常把美国描述成巴基斯坦事务中的唯一外国因素。这符合一个总趋势：把美国描述成一个好管闲事的大国，与常常宣称不干涉别国内政的中国形成鲜明对比。
在许多方面，对美国的报道（与其他国家相比，美国得到最密切的关注）不像过去那么坚持意识形态。以往，中国把 资本主义视为与社会主义制度对立的制度。但是，对中国媒体来说，含蓄地批评美国是得到允许的。在许多其他国家，中国没有被公开视为对手。对这些国家的报道 通常回避可能被视为批评性的话题。
China Media Less Aggressive in Foreign Coverage
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This time it was Pakistan, where President Pervez Musharraf had proclaimed special emergency powers. A few weeks earlier it had been Myanmar, where pro-democracy demonstrations were put down with deadly force.
But despite the proximity and important interests in play, most Chinese newspaper readers had to content themselves with dry, narrowly drawn and sometimes inaccurate accounts of the events. Absent from the foreign news coverage was independent reporting from the scene or any in-depth analysis that referred to China’s strategic interests in the countries in question.
The contrast with domestic news coverage could not be more striking. Despite continuing censorship and restrictive government rules about ownership and registration of publications, Chinese news coverage at home is in the midst of something of a golden age. A large and growing variety of news sources and a new generation of journalists have steadily expanded the boundaries of the permissible.
Less than three decades ago, there were only a few dozen newspapers in the country, all of them state-run. In 2005, according to one survey, China had 2,000 or more newspapers and 9,000 magazines, providing more in-depth coverage of events inside the country.
But what Chinese readers are able to learn of events in the rest of the world from most mainstream media here remains sharply limited in context and tightly controlled.
On Sept. 27, for example, a day after Burmese soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, including Buddhist monks, both Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post and the Beijing Youth Daily published an article from the official Xinhua news agency saying that the “Myanmar government has been restrained in handling the monks’ protest and didn’t use force” to disperse the protesters.
Only a handful of China’s conservative, state-run publications have permanent bureaus and correspondents in foreign countries. Even publications that use freelance journalists overseas, or that occasionally send out reporters of their own, rely heavily on what foreign publications publish, and carefully avoid delicate subjects.
The short list of Chinese media that maintain foreign bureaus includes Xinhua; the China News Agency; the official newspaper, People’s Daily; the state television broadcaster CCTV; and China Radio International. None of the publications that have made names for themselves with vigorous domestic reporting and investigative work make this list.
Asked why, editors pointed to a government rule requiring authorization to open bureaus or send reporters overseas. One editor said orders were sometimes received not to interview people overseas, and to avoid talking with representatives of the foreign media. An official at the State Council Information Office, a branch of China’s cabinet, refused to confirm or deny the existence of such a rule.
News media critics say one result of this lack of vigorous independent reporting is that what most Chinese news readers know of the world closely conforms with government policy and propaganda.
“By and large, China’s international reporting is a mirror of China’s diplomacy,” said Yu Guoming, a journalism professor at People’s University in Beijing. “As government mouthpieces, their international reports are linked with the government’s diplomacy. It’s not free, so what we’re really talking about is China’s diplomacy, not its media.”
No Chinese publications, for example, have explored the intricacies of China’s deepening interests in Pakistan, including Beijing’s supplying as much as 60 percent of the country’s weapons, according to some Pakistani estimates.
Nor have they examined in any depth the use of a Chinese-built deep-water port at Gwadar, which together with a similar project in Myanmar will ease Beijing’s projection of naval power toward the Middle East and the Indian Ocean. The critical role China is widely believed to have played a role in helping Pakistan develop its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs is also rarely mentioned. In fact, when issues like these are raised, it is usually to dismiss them as malicious rumors.
Chinese news coverage of Pakistan typically depicts the United States as the only foreign country that is a factor in Pakistan’s affairs. This is in keeping with a general tendency to depict the United States as a meddlesome power, in sharp contrast with China, which frequently proclaims that it does not interfere in the affairs of other countries, and sees to it that this line is scrupulously echoed in the news media.
“In its world coverage, the Chinese press often presents an ‘It’s none of our business, let’s watch the show’ attitude,” said Zhang Ping, a veteran editor with the Nanfang Press Corporation, one of China’s most highly regarded news companies. “This is, of course, the safest approach.”
Tao Yong, a freelance Chinese journalist who broke ground with original reporting from Africa recently, said editors brought strong preconceived notions to each subject that are often insurmountable. Chief among them is showing China in a positive light.
“Take Darfur, for example,” Mr. Tao said. “The first thing many Chinese media want to say is that China has nothing to do with Darfur. That’s unrealistic. The truth is neither that China has no influence, as Chinese media say, or that its influence is as big as the foreign media describe.”
In many ways, reporting about the United States, which typically receives the closest coverage of any country here, is far less rigidly ideological than in the past, when China still saw capitalism as antithetical to its socialist system.
Still, subjects that are implicitly critical of American society are fair game for China’s news media, whereas in many other countries, which China does not openly regard as rivals, topics that could be perceived as critical are generally avoided.
“For America, basically bad news is good news, meaning all important news can be covered without taboo,” said Ma Ling, an associate professor of journalism at Shanghai’s Fudan University. “Compared to the U.S., Russia would be a place that requires more caution. Although China and Russia don’t lack conflicts, China wants to solve those problems in an ‘appropriate’ way, rather than letting the media amplify them.”
