DATELINE: HONG KONG
In South Africa we were covering the
birth of democracy. In Hong Kong we may be covering its death! : Mark
Austin, ITN's Asia Correspondent.
Cambodia became a public relations nightmare for the United Nations, as journalists who failed to get the expected story of Khmer Rouge violence accused the UN PR people of withholding information. Rumours became more exotic as they simmered in heat at the favourite reporters bars in USSR Boulevarde. Parachute journalists on big expense accounts and even bigger ego trips became desperate as the event unfolded without major disruptions. Reporters began interviewing each other; a sure sign that hardly anyone understands what is really going on. A fist fight broke out between Japanese film crews over an official press release almost devoid of information. Later, there was a frantic rush to a phantom news conference which brought more than a hundred correspondents to a darkened Phnom Penh back street for news that wasn't there. When the wet season arrived on election day with a pre-dawn thunderstorm, many awoke believing the long awaited Khmer Rouge artillery barrage had begun.
To try to understand why there had been so many unfounded stories, I visited Eric Falt , the UN PR co-oridinator, in his demountable office behind the anti tank trap in the UN Phnom Penh Compound. He looked like a man under siege. But it was foreign journalists, not the Khmer Rouge, who had him in their sights. Falt said the demand for sensationalism led to gross inaccuracies in reporting:
"Before the election we had a core group so to speak to of about fifty people and was fairly easy to deal with. One of the problems we have experienced in Cambodia there are many freelance journalists and when you are a freelance you have to sell your copy. Unfortunately there is a need to sensationalise, to make it a little more attractive so that your words are going to be printed. We have an abnormally high number of freelance journalists and probably not the best ones. I have nothing against freelance journalists, there are some excellent ones, but some times they are here to make a name for themselves. . ."
Falt left Cambodia thoroughly disillusioned about media practices. He had given up any desire to go back to being a journalist, he said.
"Do I want to be part of the crowd? I am not sure any more. All throughout my youth I wanted to be a journalist but I always thought I would make a difference if I reported on the news. Now I find myself on the other side of the fence for a few years and I don't understand. I am shocked. I am traumatised. I don't exaggerate. I don't know if I want to go back into the field of the media because what I see I don't like."
The Asian Correspondent for Britain's ITN television news, Mark Austin covered both the Cambodia elections and the Mandela victory:
"There are parallels. Both elections went off quite well. Things didn't go quite so well later in Cambodia. But the elections were a success. The irony about South Africa was you had two or three thousand journalists who came for this mind-blowing story, when really the mind-blowing story was happening in Ruanda, at the very time when everyone was in South Africa."
"It [South Africa] was still an epic story and I got the feeling that when it [violence] didn't happen people left very quickly. There was an unseemly departure. I am sure that there are people here [in Hong Kong] who think the handover will be marred by demonstrations and the whole democracy story will be about the communist beast which is coming to dominate a free Hong Kong. Journalists have that perception and they will probably come looking for that kind of story.", Austin said.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Government Information Service (GIS) appears ready to weed out unruly freelancers with a system of accreditation which it initiated last year. GIS information officer, Johnathan Lange, conducted a survey of international and local media organisations, he thought might be interested in covering the events. Lange said that the Hong Kong government prepared an extensive list of official contacts from which journalists could be accredited:
"We sent out the survey to all of the foreign correspondent representatives we know about in Hong Kong and all of the local media. We sent it to our overseas offices. We have ten and they can distribute it to their contacts. We sent it to the European Broadcasting Union, the Asian Broadcasting Union, the North American Broadcasters Association and all of the agencies."
It can be seen the GIS process of selection leaned towards journalists' employers rather than journalists' own organisations. This approach contrasted strongly with the UN in Cambodia which provided accreditation to reporters who could prove membership of the International Federation of Journalists. In South Africa, individual political parties such as the African National Congress, provided accreditation. The result was an open if somewhat anarchic coverage of the Mandela inauguration. Everybody got in, but most people had to wait a long time. ITN News producer, Glenda Spiro, was caught in the media scrum.
"It was over the top. We had to stay up the whole night to get into something that started at noon. [Journalists had to queue for media buses which left at 5 am.] If you have to go from one event to another it becomes impossible. Traditionally here [Hong Kong] they want you to be early to all the events. But not that early.", Spiro said.
The 300 media employers' responses to the Hong Kong GIS survey were used in planning for the Press and Broadcast Centre (PBC), which will be located at Hall Seven in the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre. The responses formed the basis for selecting a list of media organisations which were invited to nominate journalists who would be considered for accreditation, allowing them security passes to at least get them into the Press and Broadcast Centre. From these accredited journalists, GIS would selected an elite group to directly cover the key events such as the handover event and the subsequent British departure.
The Press and Broadcast Centre will have live television links to all major events. The HK$85 million PBC will allow space for about 600 reporters at any one time, as well as providing 160 booths for individual Broadcasters. It should be noted that this figure falls a long way short of the 6,000 journalists the GIS expects will come to Hong Kong for the handover.
News releases will be distributed at the PBC. Perhaps most importantly, Chris Patten is already planning to visit journalists there, in his last news conference as Governor of Hong Kong. It follows that those journalist who don't get a press pass to get in, might as well stay home.