Media Manipulation – the Newest Olympic Event

China’s December 2006 announcement of temporary new media rules for international journalists in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics was greeted with great fanfare by the international community. Indeed, the declaration was heralded as confirmation of the progress that could be achieved through China’s new determination to improve its international reputation and its increased sensitivity to criticism while under the spotlight. In hindsight, however, although China achieved its pat on the back from the international community, little changed in reality. A recent Human Rights Watch report shows that the situation for foreign journalists remains largely the same: reporters are still subject to the arbitrary whims of officials and vulnerable to charges of criticizing the state. By establishing nominally less restrictive rules, but still maintaining the ultimate say over media in the country, China was only adjusting to what will be the reality of the Olympics. With the thousands of people and hundreds of journalists expected to descend on Beijing, Chinese authorities will have their hands full keeping track of and censoring all the possible stories that might develop. The regime has adeptly created the new rules to placate international pressure and receive credit for giving foreign journalists leeway they will probably be able to take anyway during the excitement and confusion of the Games. The new guidelines also strategically exclude local Chinese media, adding to the confirmation that these will only be temporary measures, and not the broader opening the international community had hoped for.