LOCATION: Gansu Province, Maqu County
TYPE OF INCIDENT: Manhandling, detention, intimidation
TOPIC: Tibetan unrest
NATIONALITY/ORGANIZATION: New York Times, United States
QUOTE: “Li suddenly exploded in rage and hit my right arm as I took his photo. The blow knocked the camera to the ground. Li yelled at me as he did this. I later discovered that the incident had broken by camera’s focusing mechanism, and the camera no longer works properly.”
DESCRIPTION: Edward Wong and Jonathan Ansfield, two reporters for The New York Times, were detained by members of the People’s Armed Police and the Public Security Bureau in Gansu Province for a total of 20 hours, starting on Feb. 27.
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We’re excited to offer a talk by two experts in contemporary art, hosted by the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art at 798. UCCA’s director, Jerome Sans, will speak about the center’s support for contemporary Chinese art, while Professor Mei Jianping will give us his perspective on how Chinese contemporary art is riding out the economic turmoil.
DATE: Tuesday, Feb 17
TIME: Talk will begin at 7:30. FCCC members are welcome at the Center from 6:30 to view UCCA’s newly opened exhibition by artist Qiu Zhijie, “Breaking through the Ice”.
LOCATION: Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, 798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Rd
DIRECTIONS: Enter 798 from the No 4 entrance (the first one when approaching along Jiuxianqiao Rd). Go straight through the first intersection; the Center is on your right shortly after.
Free for FCCC members, 50 yuan for non-members. Please RSVP so we can estimate numbers.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Jerome Sans is director of the UCCA in Beijing, and cultural curator for hotel chain Le Meridien. He has directed or curated art exhibitions across France and Europe. He was most recently program director at Baltic – Center for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, UK, from 2006-2008, after having co-founded and co-directed Palais de Tokyo from 2002 – 2006.
Dr. Mei Jianping is a principal developer of the Mei Moses Fine Art Price Indices. He teaches at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing, and is also a tenured associate professor of finance at the Stern School of Business, New York University and director of CCFR Real Estate Research Program at Tsinghua University. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University, where he studied under current Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. His major areas of research include international asset pricing and real asset finance.
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) is a non profit, comprehensive art center founded in Beijing by collectors Guy and Myriam Ullens in November 2007. UCCA presents exhibitions of established and emerging artists and develops a trusted platform to share knowledge through education and research.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China is concerned by the rules made public on February 6, 2009 requiring reporters based in Hong Kong and Macau to obtain a permit from the Chinese government prior to every reporting trip to mainland China.
The new rules mark a major setback for China’s Olympic and post-Olympic media policy of being open to the world. They also pose a significant obstacle to journalists from Hong Kong and Macau performing their professional duties, especially when they are assigned to cover breaking news. The rules have already had a negative impact on FCCC member organizations.
We urge the government to immediately withdraw the rules, or suspend them prior to a revision made in consultation with all stakeholders. In the future, prior to issuing new rules we strongly urge the government to consult with media industry representatives, as it has done in the past in advance of issuing new rules affecting stakeholders in other industries.
Pending changes, the FCCC would like clarification of procedures for journalists covering breaking news stories who would not be able to do their job should they have to wait for permission, and of the consequences journalists may face if found reporting in China without first obtaining a permit.
The FCCC would be happy to further discuss this matter with authorities along with other interested stakeholders.
We are honored to welcome a panel of experts about bird flu. This winter China has recorded eight human cases of bird flu, five of them fatal, and announced two incidents of bird flu in poultry. Meanwhile, dead birds washed up in Hong Kong have tested positive for H5N1, raising questions about the prevalence of the virus in China.
The World Health Organization’s China representative, Dr Hans Troedsson, together with Dr Vincent Martin, senior technical advisor for bird flu at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and Dr Edith Marshall, the FAO’s veterinary epidemiologist, will answer questions about the latest developments in bird flu.
DATE: Wednesday, Feb. 18th
TIME: 11 am
PLACE: Czech Embassy, 2 Ritan Lu
ENTRANCE: free for FCCC members, 50 rmb for non-members.
Please RSVP to fcccadnmin@gmail.com so that we have an idea of numbers and bring your passport/ID card.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Hans Troedsson has worked for the WHO since 1990 in Africa, Bangladesh and Europe, especially in the area of child and adolescent health. Prior to that, he worked as a physician in the areas of paediatrics, infectious diseases, and public health in Sweden. He was WHO Representative in Vietnam from 2004 to 2007, when he actively contributed to Avian Influenza control and preparedness and health system reforms in the country.
Vincent Martin is the Senior Technical Advisor for Avian Influenza with FAO China. Prior to coming to China, he worked in Africa for a french research center (CIRAD) and then for FAO Rome in the areas of infectious disease emergencies, global early warning systems, and infectious disease analysis. His experiences include response to disease emergencies, development of surveillance programs, risk analysis and information sharing systems.
Edith Marshall is a veterinary epidemiologist working with FAO-China on issues surrounding avian influenza. Prior to joining the Beijing office, she worked for FAO Indonesia’s avian influenza control programme, FAO’s regional office in Bangkok, and the Center for Animal Disease Modeling & Surveillance at the University of California – Davis. Her background is in risk analysis, epidemic disease modeling, and clinical emergency practice.
LOCATION: Hebei Province, town and village near Baoding
TYPE OF INCIDENT: Foreign journalist, local hire and source followed and filmed by authorities.
TOPIC: Rural spending on health care and household appliances.
NATIONALITY: Spanish and Dutch
Description: Local authorities took longer than 15 minutes to record the reporting team’s information, interfered with an interview with hospital director and appeared to intimidate other interviewees. Unidentified authorities unsuccessfully pressured the translator to speak in a private room and disclose the purpose of the visit. The authorities offered the journalists an unwanted lunch invitation and guide services. “They kept stalling our interview and our departure, and when we went to the Yingbindajie to interview local shopowners they kept loitering. This seemed to intimidate the shop people a bit. We asked them repeatedly to stop following us and not to take pictures. They seemed to comply initially, but after a few minutes would just do it again. This was repeated at the local clinic at Beidacun, a village near Baoding. When I asked two of them to identify themselves they didn’t give their names or namecards, but said they were from the local xuanchuanbu (propaganda department) and were here to help us.” The authorities were helpful when, shortly before the journalists left, one lost a cell phone and the authorities helped them find it.
QUOTE: “We explained that if the interviewees agree with the interview, we can interview them without further permission. They seemed to be aware of this, and just emphasized that they were there to provide service.”
