Submitted By: Victoria Whelan

In the Wall Street Journal on December 15th, there was an article on Chinese Media and the Olympics.

The government is worried about the cameras and notebooks being present will likely record the angry farmers, people campaigning for independence, etc. This is the first time in over twenty years that the Olympics are being hosted in a country where the government controls the media. Foreign journalists need permission to travel within China and domestic journalists are owned by the state, who has final say on what is published. China has reached an agreement to be more lax on foreign journalists, but not domestic journalists. Companies such as NBC are still figuring out how to cover the games since the use of translators is up in the air. Foreigners to China feel this is a step towards China’s reform, if all goes well.

It will be interesting to see how the Olympic coverage pans out since the tough restrictions and regulation of the Internet and other media. I wonder if this was something the Olympics looked at when choosing the site. I feel that there are so many venues covering the Olympics there is no way for China to avoid criticism on some of their policies and regulations, even if they attempt to block the release of such information. There is always a black market, just as there is in the Internet in China, and the truth is always revealed.