Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues

I feel honored to attend this conference to hear the thought-provoking speeches given by our colleagues in the Asia-Pacific. And I feel extremely pleased to share with you my thoughts on this very interesting topic.

I say so because it's not just useful.  I see it a must that we journalists have a clear idea of the role we play, and the influence the media has in society.

I say so also because mutual understanding around the world is absolutely necessary today, when misunderstanding of other cultures, other nations and other peoples, and misinterpretation of the media role is still alarming.

For instance, hospitality is a common scene in many countries.  Native English speakers would say "make yourself at home" when treating guests. We Chinese would say "what a joy to welcome guests from afar". So more often than not, they both think of giving a dinner.

Sounds nice and warm. But here comes the difference.

A western host will say, "I prepared wonderful food for you." You finish everything and everyone is happy.

But a Chinese housewife may keep saying, "I'm sorry the food is not so good and there's not much", even if you see many fancy delicacies on the table.

Sounds strange? But first of all, it's actually Chinese modesty.  And secondly, anytime the host finds your plate empty, they will offer more. If really everything is finished, they just feel embarrassed, thinking that they haven't prepared enough, which may suggest they are not sincere.

As members of the society, we care about what we say and do, when communicating with others. But do we care, as journalists?

Then comes the first point I want to discuss with you –

I. Social and Moral Responsibility

Of course we all agree that we must report facts, only facts.

When I was a student in London nine years ago, my tutor told us a famous saying, "Facts are sacred; comment is free."  I somehow learned that so long as you report facts, everything is fine, regardless of whatever impact.

But here come two questions.

The first is on the choice of facts. What if you only focus on negative things and ignore the positive side? What if the facts and figures in your report are true, but the story is an individual case and the whole picture is just the opposite?

The Second question deals with your comment. Certainly your right to speech is sacred, but what if your comment is effectively sowing the seeds of suspicion, hatred and conflict?

A couple of years ago, I attended a seminar in Beijing with some other Chinese and American journalists. The topic was the role of the media in US-China relations. On many aspects we shared similar views, although a few of us disagreed. Only one thing split the participants clearly on the country line. All Chinese journalists believed that we must be careful when reporting negative things, and must be careful how such reporting would affect the bilateral relations.

Our American colleagues argued that bad news sold better.  When responding to our criticism that they only reported negative things in China, they denied they were demonizing the country. Their argument was that any possible damage done to China and to bilateral relationship comes from the story itself, nothing to do with how it was reported.

On the other side, Chinese journalists blamed our American friends for only interested in the dark side of the society, hence the American public's lack of understanding of China and other countries.

In the end, most of us agreed that as journalists, we were more effective in damaging than improving relations, so balanced reporting was a must.

For example, a Chinese newspaper reported on a government official summarizing the experience of hosting the United Nations' 4th World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. After citing a number of successes, he admitted that there were a few minor things in organizational work that should have been made a lot better.

Anyone who knows the Chinese customs could immediately tell that he meant it was a success on the whole. But when I read some US and British newspapers, I found words like this, "China admits making mistakes." The report did not even mention the positive side of the summery.

Right, it was facts. But wrong, it was not the main theme.

Another example, about our host country of Sri Lanka, is a radio report filed in 1996. This next excerpt may sound absurd.

e.g. "Four days after the devastation of Colombo's financial district, the capital reverberated once again on Sunday morning with a thump of explosions. This time though, they were harmless: a twenty-one gun salute fired in honor of President Kumaratunga, who was presiding over this year's Independence Day celebrations."

Sounds sensational. But could it be that the correspondent already had a preoccupied image of the political situation in Sri Lanka, and the way the event was reported was the natural result of such a mindset?  
 
We all know what Nazi Germany's propaganda machine did with the Jews. 
We all know what a hidden camera can do in revealing scandals.  It may solve problems.  I may also create problems. 
 
China's population policy has long been a controversy.  You find both good effects and bad effects of this policy.  Without it, China's total population would have been 300 million more than the figure today.  But in carrying out the policy, there are examples of selective abortion and stories of baby girls being killed.  So we journalists in China agree it was a painful choice, and the media has been discussing how to make it more rational.  But we also heard journalists after reporting some individual cases in one province, assuming that it was systematic killing for the purpose of reducing the local population. 
 
Killing ten or twenty infants to bring the population of 50 million under control?
 
Make no mistake. Here I'm not pointing fingers at others. Nor questioning the motive.
If you carefully read the Chinese media, you'll also find tabloids and internet portals carrying a large number of stories in the name of reporting and criticizing social evils, but actually telling stories in great detail, say how a bank was robbed and how a woman was seduced and raped. 
If you tune in to some local radio and television talk shows, you'll hear gossips about pop stars' extra marriage affairs and their extravaganza life-style.
And if you visit entertainment places in Chinese cities and towns, especially internet cafes, you will find teenagers surfing on the websites to play violence games and read sex stories, regardless of the government restrictions on certain services for minors.
 
Indeed many of the news reports are facts, but also indeed, some of them are a cultural menace to the society and an instigation of crimes.
 
China is a country of a diversified culture.  It has opened its doors and windows to the rest of the world, but in coming are both good and bad things. 
 
So I fully agree that if we only report negative things, and jump to hasty conclusions, without a real understanding of the issues in all aspects; if we are too eager to report violence, sex, murders in detail, then we cause trouble. 
 
The result?
We either demonize a society.
Or we arouse hatred and xenophobia.
We either instigate the wrong doings of younger citizens.
Or we are a contribution to moral degradation.
We either tear apart what holds the society and communities together.
Or we are an enemy to family values and social stability.
 
Therefore I strongly believe that we in the media should also mind our behavior and be held responsible for what we report, how we report it.  
 
I feel happy that the theme of our conference is "Creating and Promoting a Culture of Peace", for I see it as a basis, that we acknowledge our social and moral responsibility.  We do share something to start with.  
 
Next, I'd like to share with you what my colleagues and I have been doing for listeners around the world in recent years, for the purpose of –
 
II. Enhancing Mutual Understanding

As China's only national radio for foreign audiences, CRI broadcasts in 39 languages.
 
It's quite a coincidence that our motto is "Let the Chinese people know more about the rest of the world and let the world know more about the China."   So we often describe CRI as a rainbow bridge on air to promote mutual understanding.
 
In a word, our job is also to promote a culture of peace, for there're so many examples of China being misunderstood, its voice misinterpreted and its image mispresented. 
 
20 years ago, an American tourist arrived in Beijing carrying almost everything with him, even drinking water, for he was told China meant more than poverty.
Five years ago, another American man in Xi'an dared not walk out of his hotel at night, for he knew it was too dangerous.  Later on, he found it a safer place to travel than his hometown.
Not long ago, a German tourist went to villages in Northwest China alone.  Later he wrote a letter to a Chinese newspaper saying the local people were so helpful.  He called it a nice surprise.
For many times, we heard foreigners "discovered" churches not just in Chinese cities, but also in some remote mountain villages. 
 
What went wrong with their original impressions?
 
And China is not alone.  Think about the following --
Africa only means killings, coups, disasters, AIDS, hunger, poverty, corruption.  Seldom do you hear the other side of the coin. 
Sri Lanka?  Nothing but fighting between government forces and the Tamil tigers.
 
But my colleagues at the Swahili and Sinhalese Services will tell you many of them are also wonderful places with wonderful progress. 
 
The English Service has a regular program, "Reports from Developing Countries", which mainly covers their economic and social issues. 
 
New producers of this show would find it hard to gather stories, but when they talk to staff members of other language services, when they turn to our correspondents in Africa, South and South East Asia and Latin America for help, when they go to embassies in Beijing, or when they visit these countries themselves, very often they find an entirely different world.  Each society has its own good news and bad news. 
 
In their letters to CRI, listeners say they are extremely happy that we also notice the efforts to solve problems, and the progress achieved.  So, as a producer of "Reports from the Developing Countries", in the first few months, you complain more; gradually, you smile more often. 
 
For you know and you report –
Some economies are picking up;
Uganda is creative in curbing HIV/AIDS;
More tourists are coming to Maldives to enjoy the tropical landscape.
India is a global legend of software development.
Sri Lanka and China have a story of rubber for rice, and romance continues today.
 
As to reporting news in rich countries -- take Israel for example – you must know bombings and counter attacks and political wrangling, but my colleagues in Jerusalem also find stories of Jews and Arabs living peacefully together in a same community, and they are not rare cases.
 
To enhance mutual understanding, it's also important to observe taboos.
 
When President Clinton visited China in 1998, US journalists kept asking him about his sex scandal at diplomatic encounters, while the Chinese media made almost no mention of Monica Lewinsky. Stores removed books about the scandal from shelves.
 
Why this? 
 
When a foreign leader visits China, people will see the national flag of his country waving along main boulevards in Beijing. An ordinary Chinese family will clean and decorate their home when they receive guests.  They avoid mentioning the guest's skeleton in the cupboard, unless he wants to talk about it.  It's not that we ignore the "news value" of bad stories.  It's just a wrong occasion.  In Chinese culture, a taboo.  Promoting a culture of peace also means promoting harmonious exchanges. 
 
Sri Lankan people certainly wouldn't feel comfortable if the Chinese media describes their country as nothing but a poor picture, when their president is in China.
 
Same case with reporting Chinese events. 
 
You may have heard of the "China threat" notion, whatever it does.  Once I was bombarded by a British gentleman from the Foreign Policy Centre with dozens of questions, all exploring China's possible behavior in the future.  The questions conveyed a same subtext -- will China be a world bully?
 
The Chinese leadership has been advocating the idea of China's peaceful rise.  But ironically, the western media largely ignores what China says.
 
Interested in the question, but not in how it's answered by the country questioned?  No problem if you don't believe what they say, but at least this is their answer.
 
Dear colleague, I've been working at CRI for 18 years.  I now host a radio forum called People in the Know, in which I discuss with officials, businessmen, scholars, NGO leaders on headline stories in China and the world.  I also have a personal opinion column, called Lin Shaowen's corner on CRI's website www.crienglish.com to discuss similar issues.  Through my experience, I find communication can help reduce misunderstanding. 
 
So in my programs or in my writings –
When discussing the Korea nuclear issue, I report China's efforts in pushing for a final resolution and achieving a nuclear-free peninsula.  The last thing it wants to see is escalating tension across the border, for it really wants to concentrate efforts on solving the many problems in its Northeast which borders the Peninsula.
On the Taiwan question, I notice China prefers a peaceful reunification, but giving up the use for force is really impossible as it will encourage separatist movement on the island and in the end, the likelihood of conflict would increase.
On economic and trade issues, I find China's integration into global trade is based on the recognition of existing rules, so it joined the World Trade Organization, in the hope of introducing global rules to regulate its market, not to break existing rules, although it does see problems affecting fair trade.
And when discussing the Chinese society, I find China, like many other countries, has both progress and problems, such as HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, corruption, unemployment, regional disparities, and almost all social problems other countries may also have, like pornography, violence and drugs.
 
All in all, I just find China similar to many countries.  It also has huge problems.  This way, I hope people from other countries will gain a better understanding of my homeland, its land and people, its culture and customs and people's way of life.  China is a country of both rich and poor, a society of both glory and worries.  It has a rich, diversified culture, but that heritage is being challenged by both good and bad things from across the border, and from within. 
 
Dear colleagues
 
Finally, allow me to share with you a story in my family, as a happy and worrying father of twins.  My 14-year-old sons are attending junior middle school.
 
Early this year, we received a list of questions from a group of American students aged between 14 and 16. One of them is interested in the life and study of their Chinese peers.  So I encouraged my sons to talk about their life and growing pains.
 
But later I was surprised to hear one of them telling how he secretly read novels in class, or at home when he was supposed to study.  He simply put the novel under his textbook, for he thought some of the lessons were just boring.
 
On a separate occasion, the other boy expressed depression for he had been caught several times reading gang or extra marriage stories.  He said he was just curious.
 
Yelling no longer works.  So we sat down to talk, telling them the silly mistakes we made when we were teenagers, and the lessons we learned.  Slowly it worked.
 
Dear Colleagues, now you can see, even in a family, creating and promoting a culture of peace can be so difficult.  But thank God we do communicate.
 
Thank you very much.