WeCensor — Getting news into and out of China

09/22/21 • 35 min

China is closing its doors to foreign journalists just as it becomes the most interesting story in the world.

So, is this all part of a strategy by China to control its own news at home and abroad?

But with geopolitical tensions rising, China is not a place the world can afford to ignore.

Nationalistic media reports produced under the watchful eye of the Chinese government are stirring suspicion of foreign media among Chinese people.

Meanwhile, more than one million Australians identify as part of the Chinese diaspora — and a large proportion rely solely on tightly controlled platforms like WeChat for their news.

In this episode of Journo, host Nick Bryant investigates how journalists can get accurate information to Australia’s Chinese diaspora, and whether it’s possible for foreign news organisations to get authentic coverage out of China without boots on the ground.

Journo is a production of Deadset Studios. This episode was made with support from the Judith Neilson Institute.

Grab your press pass: Journo helps you understand how your news is made, disseminated, and consumed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

China is closing its doors to foreign journalists just as it becomes the most interesting story in the world.

So, is this all part of a strategy by China to control its own news at home and abroad?

But with geopolitical tensions rising, China is not a place the world can afford to ignore.

Nationalistic media reports produced under the watchful eye of the Chinese government are stirring suspicion of foreign media among Chinese people.

Meanwhile, more than one million Australians identify as part of the Chinese diaspora — and a large proportion rely solely on tightly controlled platforms like WeChat for their news.

Journo is a production of Deadset Studios. This episode was made with support from the Judith Neilson Institute.

Grab your press pass: Journo helps you understand how your news is made, disseminated, and consumed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Previous Episode

Journalists will be free to report — and other lies the Taliban tells

"You’ve got no one left to tell the story” warns Bilal Sarwary, legendary Afghan journalist, as he flees Kabul following death threats from the Taliban.

Bilal’s not alone. He’s part of a new generation of journalists who’ve come of age since 9/11 who’ve been forced to abandon their homes and careers reporting on their homeland.

Those reporters who do remain in Afghanistan face an uncertain future under a regime that once banned television and the internet, and who have maintained an assassination campaign against journalists — particularly women.

It’s a reality at odds with the reformed, liberal image a slick new Taliban PR machine is constructing.

International correspondent Jane Ferguson (PBS, The New Yorker) calls the re-brand “a brilliant idea cooked up in Doha by Taliban leaders". But she says implementing a more moderate rule is impossible.

While the Taliban says women are free to keep learning and working, Moby and Tolo News boss Saad Mohseni faces a world where his reporters are beaten up for doing their jobs.

In this first episode of Journo, host Nick Bryant investigates the exodus of Afghan media, and the powerful spin from Taliban HQ that helped them claim the country.

Journo is a production of Deadset Studios. This episode was made with support from the Judith Neilson Institute.

Grab your press pass: Journo helps you understand how your news is made, disseminated, and consumed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Next Episode

Who’s really listening — Reporting when your phone is the enemy

“If you're targeted by Pegasus, you see nothing, you smell nothing, you taste nothing. You’re minding your own business, doing whatever it is that you do with your phone. And then it’s infected.”

It might sound cloak-and-dagger, but cyber security expert John Scott-Railton says spyware poses a very real threat to journalists’ ability to do their jobs.

The Pegasus Project, an international coalition of journalists, has found around 200 journalists are potential targets for surveillance by the malicious spyware.

Founding Editor of India’s The Wire Siddharth Varadarajan was among them. He received the disturbing news his phone had been infected, giving remote users access to his every text, call... and contact.

“As journalists, phones are an extension of our bodies... And what we found is that the sense of intrusion and violation is profound.”

But does the fear of surveillance have the potential to be as dangerous to a free press as the spyware itself?

In this episode of Journo, host Nick Bryant investigates the technology being used to monitor and intimidate those holding power to account — and finds a coalition of allies who’ve banded together to resist the digital incursion.

Journo is a production of Deadset Studios. This episode was made with support from the Judith Neilson Institute.

Grab your press pass: Journo helps you understand how your news is made, disseminated, and consumed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.