Chinese authorities confiscate reporters notebooks and recorders
Wanting to make sure that nothing soils the positive image Beijing wants to put forth on the Olympics, Chinese journalists are now apparently under orders not to mention the Olympics and the murder of an American tourist in the same story.
Kind of hard to do when the victim was the father-in-law of the U.S. men's volleyball team.
No one is claiming the murder was related to the Olympics or part of any conspiracy to throw the Americans off their game.
But following a press conference by the US team, Chinese authorities confiscated the notebook and recorders of the CHINESE reporters leaving the room.
Read the full story here:
China's media censored over stabbing As the article points out, there appears to be a double standard (as usual) for Chinese and Western journalists. Confiscating reporters' notebooks after a politically touchy situation is commonplace in China. It's just a few optimists had hoped that that the relaxed rules for journalists during the Olympics would extend to the local reporters.
Fat chance.
It would be nice to hear more from the US journalism organizations about this double standard. The international groups have regularly commented on this double standard -- way before the Olympics, so there is little to surprise people there. Only the Americans seem surprised at the way the Chinese government is acting.
Wonder why?