the great censorship in China

Just as I was getting fed up with the albatross of the classroom and being spoon-fed information, we were assigned to do our very first real hard news story.

We were given a lot of freedom as to how we wanted to go about doing it.

Since I've become much more politically-aware and immensely interested in the Tibetan's protestations taking place in China, I decided to cover the China's human rights violations campaign held at Federation Square.

Companies such as Google and Yahoo! actually help the Chinese government to censor out sensitive material, restricting access to web content for China citizens. Ironically, these are the companies that publicly state that they support human rights and freedom of expression.

Shi Tao, a journalist in China, sent an email to a friend in the US. When the friend published the material in the US, the Chinese government approached Yahoo! to get personal details of the source of the email. Without any questions asked, Yahoo! handed over personal details of Shi Tao to the government, including his name and address, which allowed the Chinese authorities to track him down and sentence him to 10 years in prison.

I love talking to random strangers and have so much fun interviewing them. But, it can get pretty hard garnering interesting answers, and most Asians are rather reluctant to speak up.

Since I have to be unbiased as a journalist in my report, I had to hang around waiting for Chinese faces to appear on a rather slow Friday afternoon. The first few Chinese people I approached avoided me like the plague. Also, I mistook many Chinese-looking people for China citizens, when they were in fact Korean.

Sometimes, I get really irritating and annoying answers out of interviewees. The one which I hate the most is when the person I'm interviewing turns the table around and I end up being the one getting interviewed.

Example:

Me: So, do you think such an awareness campaign is effective in highlighting human rights abuses taking place in China?

Interviewee: Err...I don't know. What do YOU think?

Me: Erm, I'm asking you the question, not the other way round.

Interviewee: Yeah, I know. But, what do YOU think?

Me: But, now I'm the one asking you the question.

Interviewee: (hyped-up) Yeah, but what do YOU think? I want to know your opinion.

Me: Well, okay. I think the campaign is very effective because it attracts the attention of the media and garners wide media coverage, so more people actually get to know about the internet censorship taking place in China. Because many people in China have absolutely no idea that their government censors the state media.

Interviewee: (Nodding head in agreement) Hmm....yeah, yeah. That's right. What you're saying is right.

Me: No, but that is MY opinion. You are not supposed to throw my own answer back at me.

Also, interestingly, some interviews stray away from the main topic.

Me: Thanks so much for agreeing to do the interview. Can I have your contact number please?

Interviewee: Er...I don't have a contact number because I just arrived in Melbourne yesterday.

Me: Well, okay...how about your house phone then?

Interviewee: Er...I don't have a house.

Me: Okay, can you just give me ANY number at all?

Interviewee: Yeah, okay, how about you give me your number, and I'll put it down.

Me: No, I can't do that! Okay, how about giving me a friend's handphone number?

Interviewee: Er....I don't have any friends. Would you like to be my friend?

Me: Do you really not have a number you can give me? Don't worry, everything will be kept confidential.

Interviewee: Okay, look, I have a friend's handphone with me right now. But, I don't know if it's right to give his number to you.

Me: Well, could you ask him then?

Interviewee: Yeah, okay. But, I can't contact him right now. How about I give you a call when I get his number?

Me: Okay, great.

Interviewee: So, would you like to be my friend? We could meet up for coffee or something.

Me: ...

I had been hanging around for 2 hours approaching random people who looked like they were from China to me. In the end, I found guys were easier to approach than girls, who were far less accommodating. They were either in a rush or turned me down flat.

My life-saver came in the form of someone munching on McDonald's. I was initially apprehensive about approaching her, but in the end, she turned out to be from China! I felt a huge sense of relief after so many failed attempts.

Since she was from China, and insisted on speaking English, I couldn't understand a word she was saying in the beginning. Also, she was a bit reluctant to talk about politics. In the end, we got along so well that we ended up chatting for over half an hour. She told me that it was my persistence that finally made her open up. In the end, the interview I had with her turned out to be one of the most crucial part of my news story.