_Vinayak Barot
New Delhi: The definition of Press Freedom nowadays is different in all corners of the world. The meaning of press freedom in China could be different from what press freedom is in India, the US, and other countries. Senior journalists of well-known media – who have invested their entire life in the field of journalism and media – believe that freedom of the press is not equal in all countries of the world.
Restrictions to the media in China are not actually restrictions to media, but it could be invisible restrictions to the Chinese officials. The latest and best example – the world has noticed is the foreign Minister of China’s visit to Fiji.
Journalists covering the Chinese foreign minister’s tour of the Pacific say they have been blocked from filming or accessing events, and that not a single question from a Pacific journalist has been allowed to be asked of Wang Yi.
Wang is midway through a marathon trip visiting eight countries in 10 days. At each stop, Wang has signed bilateral deals but he is yet to take a single question from a Pacific journalist, who is instructed at the beginning of the press conferences that no questions will be permitted.
The allegations raise serious press freedom concerns and alarm about the ability of Pacific journalists to do their jobs, particularly as the relationship between the region and China becomes closer.
Wang has held bilateral meetings in Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, and Fiji to date, with trips to Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste to come.
According to a lady Fijian journalist, during the Fiji leg of the tour, she witnessed multiple attempts by Chinese officials to limit journalists’ ability to cover the event. From the very beginning, there was a lot of secrecy, no transparency, and no access given.
She said that media who had been granted permission to cover the visit – including her – had their media passes revoked without explanation and that she and her camera operator were ordered by police to leave the lobby of the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva, where they were set to film the beginning of the meeting between Wang and Fiji’s prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, on Monday.
The journalist said that when a journalist had called out questions, he was ordered to leave the room and a minder attempted to escort him out before fellow journalists stepped in to defend him.