Today I attended a talk that was part of the Bookworm’s Festival of Writing, or whatever it is called. The speakers were four foreign journalists, including Jonathan Watts from The Guardian and Melinda Liu from Newsweek. I thought that the topics discussed were wide-ranging and interesting, but it was hard to avoid the flawed nature of journalism. Journalists say they strive for objectivity, but it is impossible to deliver because every media organisation has its own messages to deliver. People talk about self-censorship in the Chinese media, but who really believes that Western journalists do not self-censor? News Limited journalists cannot write negative stories about Rupert Murdoch, and certain newspapers probably cannot write negative stories about Israel. It is almost impossible to criticise China without sounding like a hypocrite.
When the journalists were talking about how difficult it is to interview people in China, it made me think about something new – about how China reminds me of a giant company or organisation. When you are employed by an organisation, it is extremely bad sport to air criticisms about your own organisation to the media. In China, it is extremely bad sport for Chinese citizens to speak to journalists and criticise the media. In fact, the Chinese government prefers that all foreign journalistic inquiries be handled by its public relations arm, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The whole set-up is similar to a well-run organisation – employees will be punished for speaking out to the media, instead they are encouraged to refer enquires to their company’s public relations office.
The situation in China is different when compared to the situation in Australia. I think a lot of Australians would be quite happy to complain about the government, but they would be more cautious when criticising their own company. This is because companies own their employees – you work for your company and not the other way around. Of course, unions and unfair dismissal laws can even up the balance, so that companies have to do some work for their employees. However, you do not work for your country, i.e. your country cannot fire you for criticising it. A resident belongs to their country FOREVER.
Using this logic, it seems that Chinese people belong to the Chinese government. The Chinese government can punish its citizens for criticising the government, and it can even fire them. This is what effectively happens to Chinese dissidents, they are told to leave China and never come back. This must be what freedom of speech really means. In a company, employees are not usually afforded freedom of speech, but in a country-citizen relationship, freedom of speech should be allowed. Taxes are the government’s salary, so the people paying the taxes should have the right to dismiss the government if it is not performing. Unfortunately, the reverse seems to be happening in China.
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