The New Dominion

The Chinese media response to ongoing unrest in Xinjiang has been noteworthy for the advertised speed and breadth of its coverage. (To say nothing of its accuracy.) Contrast what we have seen so far with coverage of last year’s violence in Tibet. Caught somewhat off guard by criticism about journalistic access — or lack thereof — as events unfolded in Tibet, it appears the Chinese government has taken a different, more proactive approach this time around. Take a look at the English language website set up over at Xinhua by clicking here. English language coverage has been pumped out rapid fire — this time, they were ready.

Not to be outdone, ChinaDaily quickly put out a piece — in English and primarily for Western consumption — announcing support from Britain, the United States and Turkey for the Chinese government response to the unrest. The Tibetan model seems largely to have been to take on conflicting foreign media accounts by pointing out perceived errors in reporting and raising accusations of bias. It looks like a new Xinjiang model has emerged: simply beat the Western journalists to the press (then point out errors and claim bias).

• Pictures of the events have appeared almost as they occur: pictures here (caution: graphic images).
• A press conference was held and foreign journalists were given the chance to ask questions (who knew a press conference would be such a photo-op?): pictures of press conference here.

It remains to be seen just how much access journalists are truly getting in cities other than Urumqi. The Beijing Olympics gave the Chinese government cause to rethink its approach to media relations during mass events. Has the government had a change of heart, however slight? Hopefully, but doubtfully. Regardless, at least there is an acknowledgement that journalistic access should be the default and restrictions should be the exception. We will leave you with excerpts from a curiously self-aware article about the noteworthiness of the Chinese media response, written by, well, the Chinese media:

More than 60 overseas media have sent journalists to Urumqi, capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang region, after a riot broke out in the city Sunday, leaving 156 people dead and 1,080 others injured.

. . .

“We disclosed information shortly after the incident. We welcome domestic and overseas journalists to come and see what happened,” Hou Hanmin, deputy head of the publicity department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Xinjiang regional committee, said Tuesday.

. . .

Urumqi authorities have opened a news center, equipped with more than 50 computers with Internet access, to both Chinese and foreign journalists since Monday afternoon.

UPDATE: An article released today by AFP echoes and follows up nicely on this posting. View the AFP article here.

UPDATE 2: Rebecca MacKinnon now has a piece continuing this line of analysis. Her rendition can be found here. As usual, she’s quite brilliant.