Cultural Diplomacy
Following the recent public diplomacy review, now seems like a good time to revisit what we mean by cultural diplomacy and the ways in which culture helps to deliver Britain’s foreign, developmental, and sustainability objectives. This project asks what this means for cultural institutions and whether they could play a role in fostering public debate and engagement. It also set out a new and practical framework for policy makers and practitioners in the UK and beyond.
Stop the Press!
at 2:36pm on Sunday, 15th October 2006
While we've been in China, a lot of people have made veiled references to the censorship of the press. Mostly, they either assume you know how the system works, or prefer not to get drawn on the subject. Once or twice, interviewees have clearly been worried that we are western press, so we've had to reassure them of our (lack of) credentials.
Tonight, however, Sam and I finally got to sit down and have dinner with a journalist (who will remain nameless) who was very generous with her time and honest about the situation for the press here.
She told us that, after a period of relative press freedom during the late 1990s, the Party has cracked down again on the press in recent years. The Sars crisis and its coverage by Chinese and foreign press was an important moment, as it was a stark reminder to the Party of the damage they could suffer at the hands of a free press. Previously, our dinner companion had became well known for her investigative reporting of corruption, but she has now been banned from writing this kind of thing. She told us that when the North Korea nuclear story broke the other day, the editors of the main newspapers received a call from the Propaganda Department explicitly telling them not to publish any stories; all coverage would go through the official channels.
Reluctant to move into the 'safer' areas of journalism, such as financial reporting, she is resigned to (but not happy) writing harmless stories that will not provoke the anger of the Party machine. Recently, for example, the lead story of her newspaper (kind of Independent meets New Statesman) was a special report on Chinese tea specialities. Not exactly cutting edge stuff.
It's funny, but the longer we're in China, the more we're understanding about the people and the culture. But equally, it's becoming clearer that the deeper you dig, the more you realise that there are some differences between our countries that are so profound that it sometimes feels almost impossible to find a common point of reference.
Tonight, however, Sam and I finally got to sit down and have dinner with a journalist (who will remain nameless) who was very generous with her time and honest about the situation for the press here.
She told us that, after a period of relative press freedom during the late 1990s, the Party has cracked down again on the press in recent years. The Sars crisis and its coverage by Chinese and foreign press was an important moment, as it was a stark reminder to the Party of the damage they could suffer at the hands of a free press. Previously, our dinner companion had became well known for her investigative reporting of corruption, but she has now been banned from writing this kind of thing. She told us that when the North Korea nuclear story broke the other day, the editors of the main newspapers received a call from the Propaganda Department explicitly telling them not to publish any stories; all coverage would go through the official channels.
Reluctant to move into the 'safer' areas of journalism, such as financial reporting, she is resigned to (but not happy) writing harmless stories that will not provoke the anger of the Party machine. Recently, for example, the lead story of her newspaper (kind of Independent meets New Statesman) was a special report on Chinese tea specialities. Not exactly cutting edge stuff.
It's funny, but the longer we're in China, the more we're understanding about the people and the culture. But equally, it's becoming clearer that the deeper you dig, the more you realise that there are some differences between our countries that are so profound that it sometimes feels almost impossible to find a common point of reference.
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