Many if not all Chinese journalists want to report with truth and accuracy but are frustrated by lack of access to local government officials, one of China’s most well-known TV news personalities said on the sidelines of a visit to the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism on October 26.

Malcolm Wang, host of CCTV’s talk news program Face-to-Face (面对面), acknolwedged that Chinese reporters must also contend with inviolable political restrictions.

“The political system is the same as it has always been,” he said. “There is a bottom line we cannot cross.”

Wang, described by himself and others as China’s Larry King, was visiting the J-school as part of a delegation of Chinese media officials and journalists on a tour of the U.S. to observe the American media landscape and study American approaches to journalism education.

Pressed to explain recent talk of limitations of Chinese media, Wang said one of the greatest frustrations for Chinese reporters was the reticence of local government officials, which he said makes it difficult to report accurately on coal mining accidents and other disasters.

China’s underdeveloped rule of law doesn’t hold grass-roots cadres accountable if they turn down interview requests or play hard-to-get with reporters, he said, adding that a recently issued regulation restricting coverage of emergencies to journalists from the official media was partly intended to place pressure on local authorities to speak to the press.

Wang offered his observations on the sidelines of the official meeting, during which J-School Dean Orville Schell and other faculty members, joined by several Chinese graduate students and visiting scholars,
discussed how the media operates differently in China and the US.
Other powerful Chinese media figures, including Pi Shuyi, director general of central government mouthpiece the People’s Daily, and Gao Liantao, deputy director general of the central state-run Xinhua News Agency, also attended the meeting.
(by Michael Zhao, ‘07)