This story stood out for me. Over the summer, I read a critique of the Olympic games in Beijing. One of the writers pointed out the very difficult environment the Chinese authority create for a journalist. Now with the center of the media world focused on Beijing, the People's Republic of China "relaxed" the restrictions for the press for the duration of the games. However as Richard Lapchick reported for ESPN that was not the case. The latest story now is, despite the optimistic hopes of some, the PRC will reinstate their restrictions on journalists mid-October.
Several of ABC's announcers (I want to say Bob Costas and Matt Lauer) mentioned how the games presented the PRC with the chance to announce it's arrival as one of the world powers. I find that frightening. Frightening that a government can impose such authority over the presses while upseting Tibetan monks (they're monks, for God's sake! It's in their job description to be calm and peaceful!), and still become a global power, to the point where the rest of the world will be answering to them soon.
Kovach and Rosenstiel quoted Thomas Jefferson saying, "No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will." They conclude with, "A free press thus became the people's first claim on their government" (17). How then is the press and the people to respond to China's restrictions? What is the next step as far as global free press and how are we to go about getting there?
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