a shameful waste of madhouse time » journalist

Stuff about Shanghai cop killer Yang Jia （杨佳）

peijin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:56:14 +0000

Some interesting statements during the court proceedings:

　杨佳当庭直言：我是无罪的，是他们违法，有罪的是他们。（指警察，发人深思啊）
[Yang Jia: I am innocent, is they who are guilty of breaking the law.]

　法官问：你有什么补充意见？杨佳说：“这些警察之所以敢这样，都是因为他们的背后有你们”。
[Judge asks: do you have any thing to add to your statement? Yang Jia: "the reason the police dare to act the way they do is because
you guys stand behind them."]

　法庭最后陈述，杨佳说：“被这样的警察管理着的国家，一个遵纪守法二十几年的公民最后都会被判刑坐牢。” （说出了绝大多数民众的心里话）

杨佳最著名语录：你不给我一个说法，我就给你一个说法。

[Closing statement. Yang Jia says: "a country run by policemen such as this will force someone who has been law-abiding for twenty some years to end up going to jail." The blogger says: (these are the true feelings of the overwhelming majority of people).

Yang Jia's most famous quote: If you don't give me an explanation, I will give you one.]

Elsewhere, citizen blogger and journalist Zola reposts a general letter calling for amnesty for Yang. The letter states a few reasons for this, beginning with some general reasons (the world is generally moving away from capital punishment, even some war criminals were pardoned in China) and then moving to some specific issues relating to how the case was handled (judicial mishandling, interference). Zola states what most others have said about this case: that the tragedy of Yang is that he was an ordinary fellow that was driven to homicidal rage by the pigs. Left with no legal recourse, stymied by a system that was patently designed to thwart demands like his, he had no other choice but to exact his revenge in blood. This open letter was signed by the following people:

中华人民共和国公民：（按签名顺序排，第一批签名人员名单）

艾未未（北京艺术家）、茅于轼（北京经济学家）、杜光（北京离休人员）、于浩成（北京法学家）、戴晴（北京学者）、张祖桦（北京学者）、王俊秀（北京学者）、古川（北京编辑）、陈永苗（北京律师）、李苏滨（北京律师）、江天勇（北京律师）、黎雄兵（北京律师）、唐吉田（北京律师）、杨凤春（北京学者）、王治晶（北京自由撰稿人）、夏业良（北京学者）、冉云飞（四川编辑）、廖亦武（四川作家）、张博树（北京法学家）、萧默（北京学者）、刘序盾（北京学者）、李智英（北京学者）、李槟（南京教师）、孙岩力（北京教师）、王卫星（北京记者）、谭洪安（北京编辑）、于赤阳（黑龙江公民）、张辉（山西民主人士）、贾瑞明（河北农民）、谢军（深圳设计）、王靖禹（旅英学者）、华乔（上海摄影师）、释妙觉慈智（广东法师）、林树坤（瑞士出版人）、范冲（北京学生）、张志强（北京打工之友）、李勉之（深圳工程师）、曹王澜（广东民工）、张赞宁（江苏教师)、龚光云(广东学者)、郭玉闪（北京学者）、周曙光（楚国人）、淮生（北京自由职业者）、马萧（北京记者）

2008年10月20日

YOu can see that Ai Weiwei (Mr. I hate my bird nest and the fake Olympics) among many other scholars, writers, and intellectuals from around the country. There was only one person from Shanghai that signed it, and that was photographer Hua Qiao.

The story has gathered some steam and AFP and a bunch of other western media sources are running this story, noting that there were protests in Shanghai outside the courtroom where Yang’s trial was held:

Huang Xuemin, a grey-haired protester, complained police beat her when she tried to enter the court premises.

“You see how police were treating us, and you could imagine how badly Yang Jia must be treated,” she said, showing the assembled crowd scratches on her forearms that she said were from her scuffle with police.

Obviously, this is only the tip of the iceberg, and there are vast amounts of debates going on online … personally, I just want to know the truth about what happened to the guy. I want there to be an investigation into whether or not he was mistreated by the police. I think that’s what most of his supporters want. As to whether or not he should die–well, he did kill a lot of people, and I don’t think there is any justification even if you were insulted or beaten or otherwise felt your dignity to have suffered as a results of other people’s actions. That said, I am *almost* categorically against the death penalty, because I feel uneasy with the idea of the state arrogating to itself to mete out this kind of brutal punishment.

Oh well. Yang Jia will face the firing squad, a dead chicken for all the rebellious monkeys lurking in the underbelly of Chinese society. And for those that support or otherwise sympathize for Yang, that will just prove what they’ve been saying all along.

Technorati Tags: yang jia, 杨佳, crime, shanghai, murder, police, expression china, chinese, media, newspaper, reporters, journalist, government, corruption

Chinese reporter: why I quit being a journalist

peijin — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:42:32 +0000

This too is a thread from Xici, and in it a reporter talks about the various things that he/she has seen or done in a ten year career as a journalist in China.

说不清我为什么要告别记者生涯，尽管在几年前我已厌倦了这份工作，但真正咬牙下定决心离开，还是年初的事。我揣着记者证，我的社会身份是“记者”，可是这些年来我何尝有机会做过真正的记者？两千多年前太史公秉笔直书不讳君恶，我们今天都做不到。不能真实地记录，不能自由地表达，我还算什么记者？无非是为稻粱谋而已！这样的“记者”生涯，为什么不向它说再见？

[rough trans: I left this work because even though I had been tired of it for awhile, I hadn't worked up the courage to leave until earlier this year. 2000 years ago, Taishigong could directly criticize the rulers, but we cannot do that now. We cannot truthfully record or express what happens, so in what sense are we journalists?]

记得第一次出京采访是到西安，参加武警总部召开在那儿召开的一次会议。几天的会议听来听去都是车轱辘话，刚出江湖的我还很认真地做笔记，但心里犯嘀咕：这样枯燥的内容怎么写成报道？等会议还没有开完时，有新闻干事已经把事先写好的通告给我，只要略作改动，署上我的名字就万事大吉了。我疑惑既然如此，为什么还要记者参加会议，由部队的新闻干事直接将通稿传真到报社不就得了？后来才知道，请记者特别是中央媒体记者参加，会提升会议的规格。记者，也就成了贾府装点门面的清客。采访和会议都很轻松，剩下的时间当然是要逛逛这个做过汉唐国都的古城，大雁塔、华清池、兵马俑，一个也不能少。对我触动很大的一件事是去秦始皇陵遗址公园，大门紧闭，外墙上被用石灰刷了 “杀人偿命”等大字，跪着一个妇女和两个孩子，披麻戴孝，后面立着一群愤怒的民众，大喊里面的人出来。记者的敏感让我前去问询，原来妇女的丈夫是附近村庄的农民，几天前去公园里叫卖，被抓入当地派出所，第二天通知家属该人在派出所病亡。家属和村民要讨个说法，遂有此一幕，看到我提问、拍照，村民可能猜出我的身份，将我围住七嘴八舌说个不停。这时和我一起参观的武警官员以及陪同人员，悄悄地拉我出去，说我们不是来管这些闲事的。毕竟在部委机关做过公务员，再不谙官场规则的人也知道该给东道主一个面子，何况刚当记者不知道没有单位领导授权的“管闲事”会带来什么。于是我从人群中溜走了。

[Here the writer talks about how, as rookie reporter, he once attended meetings and conferences of the Xi'an armed police division, and wondered how something as dry as a meeting could be written up as a report. He discovered later, that their media relations people had already drafted a report for them, and all that was needed for him to do was to change it a little as he saw fit. The writer, realizing that he didn't really have much work to do, went off to see the sights of Xi'an and ran into an incident where an angry crowd of people were demanding justice after a local villager had been detained and then somehow died in police custody. The writer took some pictures and the people, sensing that he was a journalist, surrounded him and told him what happened...but he of course was gently taken away by his companions and minders. This was none of his business, and after all he had to give his hosts some face.]

这样的“吹鼓手”做了几年后，我总结出一条经验，上面布置正面报道的任务中，一高和一低可以做。“一高”就是指对整个执政党大而化之的肯定或者是对最高处大佬们的颂扬，基本上不会有什么问题；“一低”指报道中赞扬这个机器链条中的小螺丝钉，如基层民警、普通战士或小官员，问题也不大。最容易出问题的是厅级和副部级官员，可能刚报道他的“光辉业绩”没多久，这人就被“双规”或判刑了。

最搞笑的一次是，某次人代会，我已经在后方当编辑，当时江西省检察长（副部级官员）丁某托人主动联系本报，要求在报上露露脸，我们一个记者写了篇报道，极尽吹捧之能事。稿子到了我手里，我建议不要刊发，理由是：一个副部级官员，一般说来不是靠媒体正面报道升官的，到了这个位置，低调，不引人关注是最重要的，否则会遭忌恨，因此他们往往对媒体的报道避之唯恐不及。而这次一位副部级官员主动要求在媒体上高调亮相，一定是他感觉到危机了，想一切办法抓救命稻草，也许他觉得被官方媒体刚刚正面报道过，有关部门为考虑影响会谨慎从事。即使采访他，也只能报道他作为一名普通人大代表的建议，而这篇稿件竟然赤裸裸颂扬其个人清正廉洁。可是，由于那位记者找报社高层公关，稿件还是发出来了。不到半年，这位专司反贪的省检察长自己被反贪了，《南方周末》长篇报道他落马的过程，而且大段引述了本报赞扬他的那篇报道。看到《南方周末》的报道，我的脸都红了，这样的报纸，有何“报格”可言？

[In this part the writer says that writing "high" and "low" reports are easy, meaning reports that extol the accomplishments of high level officials and cadres or really low level, grassroots cadres. The difficult reports to write are the mid-level ones, because there's always a chance that these people will get caught for corruption. One amusing event was one when there was a an offical that wanted to get some exposure in the media, and the writer could smell trouble in this guy. He knew that any official that wanted exposure that badly was in some kind of trouble, and was grasping at straws to save his career. A reporter wrote an especially laudatory piece about this official, and despite the writer's disapproval (the writer had been promoted to editor at the time)they piece went to press. Sure enough, a while later this official got indicted for something and Southern Weekend reported the whole thing, quoting the report taht the writer's newspaper had published at length. The writer says that his face turned read reading this report: and I wonder whther he means because he's embarrassed that their shitty report was used by a decent paper like Southern Weekend or embarrassed that Southern Weekend went so low as to use their report as part of theirs.

(-: 发表于：2008-10-18 13:51:54
告别圈养的记者生涯
2008-10-18
十年砍柴

我去人事处退记者证时，人事处的老兄把证件上的照片撕下还给我，说：“留个纪念。”照片上的我二十八岁，看着照片上清瘦还有些朝气的面孔，我的眼睛有些湿润。原以为自己不会有什么感伤。感伤，是因为我把九年半的岁月丢在这个大院，犹如一块石子投到了深不见底的潭水里。

车拉着两个纸箱，像往常下班一样驶出大门，岗哨上武警还是那样如雕塑一般伫立。流水般的日子里，这个岗哨上有多少茬新兵成为老兵，然后复员，再来一拨新兵，曾记得多少次我忘了带证件和哨兵交涉。那些退伍回乡的哨兵还好么？他们在为生计打拼中，是否会偶尔记起这个岗哨？

纸箱里面是几千张照片，十几本采访笔记，五十万采访札记，一摞摞会议材料，还有几十本红红绿绿的获奖证书。九年半的历史，就这样简单地打包了。

回家整理那些照片和采访札记，很多有趣或者愤怒的事情想起来了，近两年来，我很少去触摸这些记忆，因为惭愧。照片记录了我这九年走过的地方，全国包括港澳台在内，我只有四个省区未曾涉足。可是纵横万里路，又留下些什么?除了看了些不同的风景，认识些不同的人。那些和我亲密地挨在一起微笑着合影的人，有一大半我想不起他们是谁了。而当时在酒桌上，我们一定是频频碰杯谈天说地好似多年的老友，等到照片留下时，就是戏散场的时候，我这些年四处采访，和“心连心艺术团”巡回演出也没有太大的区别。

现在看来，我的“处子访”已经为我的记者生涯定调。这不是真正新闻学意义上的采访，而是充当一场戏的某个配角。秦始皇陵遗址公园那一幕一直是我心中的一个阴影，有时我安慰自己，即使我留下来采访了，也十有八九发不出去。可是反过来又想，就算不能发表，但如果尽力了就问心无愧，但我没有尽力。

那一次西安之行，我还特意抽时间去西北政法学院一趟，见识了著名的雕塑“宪法顶个球”，现在翻出这张“顶球”照片，宛若隔世，一晃这些年过去了，我和我所在的国家，究竟走过了一条什么样的路？

由于报道的领域是时政，得采访一些官员，有时候也不能免俗和官员们合影，很多官方媒体的记者热衷这个，好像一张合影就是一张虎皮或者护身符。看合影中或者我镜头下的那些官员大多神采奕奕，好多现在已落马。

西安回来后不久就去昆明采访，参加某中央单位召开的行政监察的会议，当时的云南省省长李某到会发言，这是个说话直率的彝族汉子，他发言中出现口误，将云南是个“多民族的省份”说成“多民族国家”，我们记者看热闹地观察台下的高官们一脸尴尬，事后议论说中央来的官员会不会怪罪滇抚有不臣之心呀。几年后的故事大家都知道，因贪腐这位巡抚被判死缓，当然和口误无关，但贪腐也未必是真正的原因。几年后再次去云南，一位彝族干部还惋惜李某是他们民族最可能成长为全国人大副委员长或政协副主席的人物——因为建政五十多年来，彝族干部最高位到正部，而彝族的人口和藏族、回族差不多。然后他又说：我们这个民族太听话了，要是维族或藏族的高级干部，有这点事上面也不会动他们。后来我到广西去，当地一些干部对成克x伏法，亦做如是感叹。

有一年和国家药检局一位司长去江西进行医疗器械打假报道，一周的接触，觉得那位司长低调随和，有儒雅之气，对其印象颇为不错。回京后，刚开始还打过几个电话，渐渐地疏于联系了，最后一次看到他是在电视上，他被判刑，一头白发形容憔悴。我心底里一声叹息。

第一次参加人民代表大会报道，心里还很激动，似乎觉得是在见证历史。住在会上，报社一位同事引荐一位黑龙江某市新闻办主人来找我，这位主任陪着市委书记来开会，市委书记除他，还带了好几个随员。新闻办请我去采访他们的书记，书记侃侃而谈该市的发展思路。这是我第一次对人大代表的制度设计产生疑惑。因为民意机关存在的目的就是为了监督行政、司法机关。而一个地方党委政府及司法机关的领导人成为人大代表后，他如何履行监督自己的职能？再看到这位书记的消息时，这位书记作为省人大副主任，因受贿被查处。

我们一位同事更神奇，他采访过的厅级、副部级官员中，大半落马，被誉为“高官杀手”。

从事“圈养记者”几年内，认识了许多其他中央媒体的同行，而且许多人成为很好的朋友。这些人当年多是大学的优秀毕业生，刚入行时，也有一番新闻人的抱负。但时间一长，多数磨得没有棱角了。所求者，要么是利用身份挣点钱，要么和权力部门搞好关系，熬到处级调到权力部门做公务员。有一年，和新华社和中国日报两位记者一起去河北某市采访该市人大，公事完毕三人在宾馆大堂闲聊，等待车来送我们回京。这时一个便衣过来，对我们喝斥：你们马上离开这里！一幅凶巴巴的样子。我们知道是中央一位重要领导人到了该市视察，可能要来此宾馆，当地警方负责清场。对这种拿着鸡毛但令箭的公差，没人不反感。我问他：你是谁？你在执行什么公务？你啥都不说，我们凭什么要听你的。他可能没想到有人还敢这样问他，嗓门更大了，说：我没必要告诉你们，让你们滚蛋就得滚蛋！那位在未名湖边呆了几年的新华社记者火了：我们不滚蛋怎么了？我看你怎么办。我接着打圆场，说：“你起码要说明一下身份，我们才知道你在执行公务，这是执法的基本素质呀。”同行的《中国日报》的记者是个漂亮妹妹，接话茬说：“你给他这样的人讲素质，岂不是对牛弹琴？他可能都不知道素质两个字怎么写。”气得这位公差满脸通红，这时候该市人大的工作人员前来解围，一场风波消弭。几年后，那位女记者出国了，那位愤怒的男记者，进了“海”里，成为了宫中小黄门。——愤怒的记者总是要成熟的，在这样的体制下，这样的选择也无可厚非。

[Here the writer talks about how people start out with ambition but how, after time, they lose that ambition, and the people who are left are just out there to use their status to earn some money or else cultivate guanxi with powerful people, with the aim of becoming civil servants. e recounts another incident where he and two other colleagues were sitting in a hotel lobby after conducting some interviews. Suddenly, a guy walks in and tells them that they have to leave, and he's rather rude about it, so they ask him why, and who he is, which in turns infuriates the man even more, who says 'if i tell you to get out, you had better get out'. Eventually, someone from a government office comes and explains that some official is coming to this hotel and that they have to leave. The writer's colleagues castigated the rude guy, saying some quite obvious things, like that he doesn't possess that basic "qualities" (suzhi) that someone in his position ought to have. In the west we would just call that professionalism and common courtesy. The writer says that of these two colleagues, one went overseas, and the other went into business. I guess once you see where you stand in this society, as a journalist, and the people that you have to cozy up to in order to do your job, the only rational thing to do is get out while you still can.]

The writer ends his essays on a melancholy note, wondering whether or not everything that he dreamed of was just an illusion. He then ends his essay with these famous lines from the HOlocaust Musuem (in DC?):

First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
起初他们向共产主义者而来，我没说话──因为我不是共产主义者；
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
随后他们向犹太人而来，我没说话──因为我不是犹太人；
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
随后他们向工会成员而来，我没说话──因为我不是工会成员；
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
随后他们向天主教徒而来，我没说话──因为我是新教徒；
Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
随后他们向我而来，那时已没人为我说话

Technorati Tags: press, freedom, expression, china, chinese, media, newspaper, reporters, journalist, government, corruption

Some Olympics photos from Marc Aspland of the Times UK

peijin — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:35:51 +0000

Olympics in Pictures via kwout

This picture is from the Times UK photographer Marc Aspland: quite nice and painterly. He’s photoblogging the Games but if you’re in China you probably have to use a proxy to read his typepad.com blog.