DATELINE: HONG KONG

These guys who are claiming we are being negative, they seem not to understand the basic function of news. . .It is not our job to be cheerleaders. : Keith Richburg.
Introduction: Keith Richburg is the Southeast Asia Bureau Chief for the Washington Post. He was the paper's African Bureau Chief from 1991 to 1994 after serving as the Philippines correspondent from 1986. This is an edited text of an interview recorded at Mr. Richburg's office on 30.4.97.
Richburg: I think the SAR [Special Administrative Region] and the Chinese governments are to blame for the so called negative image that Hong has abroad, if there is such a thing. I have just got back from two weeks in the states myself. I was surprised about the general perceptions of the audiences. I was talking about a book I did on Africa. Every time I stood up before an audience, I was introduced as coming in from Hong Kong. People wanted to talk about the problems there and how bad the situation was going to be. The press in my view has been pretty fair in reporting what has been going on here. I agree there is a negative impression but that negative impression has been created by the actions and deeds of the National People's Congress in Beijing, some of the statements by Chinese government officials and by the actions of the SAR since the Chief Executive was named in December.

Knight: Robert Chua said this week that foreign correspondents have been untruthful in their reporting of events here.

Richburg: That is absolute nonsense and they can't point to a single example that I have seen that is inaccurate, at least in the newspaper reporting. I don't watch all the television. But I read all of the reporting that comes out in my own Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Time magazine. Most of the print people here are like myself. I have been associated with Asia since 1986. I used to come in and out of her from the Philippines covering stories in Hong Kong. These aren't parachute journalists who popped in to cover the story. We are not firemen popping into Asia. We are all here specifically because out editors saw we are the people with long experience in Asia. We came in carrying some history. People say we are being untruthful about Asia. I defy them to show me a story that is untrue.

Knight: Perhaps it is a question of emphasis. Robert Chua talked about the emphasis given to Emily Lau and her demonstrations. Don't western journalists look for conflict in stories?

Richburg: Yes we do. But that is a definition of news. It would be an inaccurate story to say that Tung Chee-hwa was elected or selected by four hundred people to be Chief Executive in a ceremony which was supported by most Hong Kong people, if you are going to ignore the fact that some of the most prominent people in Hong Kong politics outside demonstrating in the streets. That is part of the story.

Now I know that they would rather we ignore that part of the story. The people we talk to, Martin Lee and Emily Lau were elected with the largest majority of the popular votes of any politicians running here. They to me represent the voice of the Hong Kong people, than some of these clowns on these committees who have not been elected to anything. I don't know why it is that people think we as media should ignore people who poll 70% of the popular vote any time they stand up and run for office.

Knight: Ted Thomas would say that reporting conflict is bad for business.

Richburg: I am sorry. Maybe he should direct some of his anger and angst at some of the deeds and actions of he SAR government because all we are doing is reporting accurately and fairly reflecting the conflicts and controversies that exist here.

For example, this controversy over the Bill of Rights and the Society Law changes [to make demonstrations subject to police approval]. We did not make this up. The decision came from the People's Congress in Beijing. Tung Chee-hwa's office endorsed it and then they put out their consultation papers on it . All through that process, Chris Patten, the Democratic Party, Emily Lau and her Frontier group, the Bar Association here, the Society of Community Organisations, they have come out strongly and vehemently criticising these proposals. My fax machine has been ringing off the hook. We are not making up this conflict and controversy. We are accurately reporting that the government has proposed these things and it has ignited a storm of criticism. Are they reading their own newspapers. I can't think of anything we have reported that has not appeared in the South China Morning Post or the Standard.

Knight: Ted Thomas wants to pay people to fly people to fly to Western centres to tell what he perceives to be the truth about Hong Kong.

Richburg: They won't be the first. There are already organisations like Better Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Trade development Council going overseas all the time boosting trade for Hong Kong. The Tourism authority sends people all over the world. They have reps all over the states, talking up Hong Kong. There are enough people going around telling people good stories about Hong Kong; the stock market and the property market booming. These guys who are claiming we are being negative, they seem not to understand the basic function of news. Ted Thomas is a respected PR person here. I am sure he understands the function of news but for Rhetorical purposes, he's ignoring it. The story of Hong Kong's continued economic vibrancy is not necessarily a story. We have reported that. It is in every story. You just don't repeat that over and over and over again because that is not news. Continuity is not news. News is what is conflict. News is where there is disagreement.

When Chris Patten put out his proposals for democratic change, we went off and found some reaction from Xinhua and Beijing to criticise those proposals. That is what news is. News is where someone puts up something and someone else on the other side says where they have problems with it.

If One hundred plans lad safely at Kai Tak airport and the passengers get off and get their luggage and go home, we don't report that. If one plane, one day has a mishap, say a tyre blows out and skids off the runway, that will be a front page story with a photo. Now the airport controllers may say that is unfair, 'How come you report this one incident when the day before you had a hundred land safely?'

My reply is, 'You expect them to land safely. News is when one skids off the runway'.

Knight: Will the role of foreign correspondents change after the handover?

Richburg: I don't think it should. I think they should be doing the exact same things. The SAR will be proposing and doing things. It is not our job to be cheerleaders. It is not our job to put what they propose as uncontested and uncontroversial. Our job is to find who is going to be opposed to these things, or affected by these changes and go out and make sure their voices are heard. People forget that the role of the [free] press is to be adversarial. Otherwise you would have government and press acting in sync as you do in Singapore where the local press is basically an instrument for government propaganda campaigns. I saw that in Africa. Governments think the press is a tool to promote their own policies. That seems to be what these guys [Advance Hong Kong] are trying. They are trying to make the press a tool of Hong Kong government policy, instead of reporting accurately and fairly the policies that go on here.

Alan Knight

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