Beijing's news dropped from NPR satellite feed

Originally published in Current, June 19, 2000
By Mike Janssen

Fitzgerald

Just two months after adding China Radio International reports to its offerings to NPR listeners, World Radio Network agreed to cut Beijing government-controlled programming from the feed it prepares for NPR stations, as of June 17. The decision comes at the request of NPR, and highlights differences between WRN and its stateside distributor over the scope and purpose of its wide-ranging world news coverage.

"Our contract calls for all of the material on WRN to meet Western standards of journalistic balance, accuracy, and fairness," says NPR Vice President for Programming Bill Davis. "We have a concern that some of that material [on WRN] is not meeting those standards, and therefore we've requested that it be suspended so we can review." Despite the contract, NPR's stance contrasts with that of WRN executives, who expect NPR listeners to hold WRN's international coverage up to American media and draw their own conclusions.

"I believe that CRI complies with what they believe to be their own standards of balance and fairness," WRN host and Executive Producer John Fitzgerald says in response to Davis' concerns. "Whether we can apply Western standards to China or to any other country is a point worth debating."

WRN has been distributing NPR's signal overseas for years, and NPR began importing an overnight schedule of WRN's foreign broadcasts two years ago. The service now airs on 26 public radio stations in the U.S. In an April press release, NPR initially welcomed the Chinese government's radio service. NPR President Kevin Klose called it "an important addition" to WRN. A month later, in a May 17 letter, NPR asked WRN to drop the Chinese programming.

Founded in 1992 by former BBC executives, London-based WRN culls news from services in 28 countries and repackages it for overnight broadcast on NPR and in Namibia, Canada, and South Africa. An around-the-clock international audio feed goes out via digital radio, cable TV, satellite, the Internet, and AM and FM stations.

WRN began airing CRI news via satellite in February. At the time, Fitzgerald and his staff knew that recycling material from a Communist-run broadcasting service might raise some eyebrows at WRN carriers. Understanding the sensitivity of the issue, WRN notified NPR that it had acquired CRI two months before adding it to the network's nightly feed.

Fitzgerald regrets NPR's request to drop CRI, saying he was surprised it came so soon after picking up the Chinese news source. But, he says, "We have no choice to suspend it." WRN is trying to reach a compromise with NPR and CRI, he says. According to Davis, NPR hopes to meet with WRN staff in early August to discuss the matter, with the goal of reaching an agreement within three months.

Fitzgerald says NPR cited just one CRI news item in its request. In its letter, NPR referred to a brief story that began, "The Chinese government has fulfilled its obligations under the United Nations convention against torture." The item goes on to credit the statement to a Chinese ambassador, who was reporting to the United Nations Committee Against Torture. The item ended with, "China has taken strong measures to stop judicial officers from extorting confessions by use of torture, and improve public awareness of this illegal practice. As a result, the number of suspects convicted in China of extorting confessions by the use of torture is dwindling."

"The use of torture in Chinese prisons is controversial," Davis says. "I don't think anyone disagrees with that. There was no dissenting opinion [in the item]. That's what we were concerned about."

Fitzgerald hears something else in the item. "Admitting in this instance that they do indulge in torture of their own citizens is perhaps, in their standards, a reasonable standard of fairness and accuracy and balance," he says. "I certainly felt when I heard that story that, in Chinese terms, that was a remarkable confession. . . . There are many other variables within that story, and I'm not trying to be an apologist for the Chinese regime."

The debate over CRI cuts to the core of WRN's mission--to provide a mix of global views on top news stories, even if those views conflict with coverage of international affairs in the American press. That purpose now seems to chafe against WRN's contract with NPR and its emphasis on meeting Western journalistic standards.

Many of WRN's sources are state-operated, and the network expects listeners to take that into account when listening to the broadcasts. "We see the service as providing a balance of opinions from around the world," Fitzgerald says. "Some of those countries may subscribe to democracies, and some of those countries may not subscribe to democracies. That doesn't preclude them from having their viewpoint made available to an NPR audience."

"It's important to have a wide variety of views," Davis says. "But saying that because we here in the West have alternative viewpoints, therefore, something that might essentially be propaganda is perfectly fine--I don't think that follows, and if it did, their contract wouldn't have the language that it does."

By complying with NPR's request, WRN has dropped its only Far Eastern news source at a time when it is trying to expand its coverage in the East. WRN is currently negotiating with two other Asian broadcasters, and hopes to begin talks with a third. Fitzgerald would not identify the countries.

Removing CRI also runs counter to WRN's selling point of representing as wide a range of perspectives as possible. "I think the whole reason that we're carrying this is because that's what we're looking for," says Anna Kosof, radio station manager at WHYY in Philadelphia. "It's the only program of its kind that, in a sense, has this global presence." However, Kosof says she also understands NPR's concerns.

"What's nice and unique about World Radio Network is that it brings international news straight from the source," says Ray Dilley, g.m. at WJHU in Baltimore, who formerly managed overseas services at NPR. Dilley acknowledged that the debate over CRI won't affect his feelings about the service.

While not all stations that carry WRN are lamenting the loss of CRI, Virginia Breen, v. p. of Oregon Public Broadcasting, says CRI's absence will be "very disappointing to listeners on the West Coast." Breen's station picked up WRN a year ago to complement NPR's coverage of the conflict in Kosovo, but adding CRI became an added bonus in a state with many Chinese immigrants and a boom in adoption of Chinese children.

"[China] has its problems in how it puts out its information, but it's what the Chinese people get," says Breen, who lived in China for two years. "It's actually very interesting for us who do our press in a different way to hear how it's done in a different country. . . . We should be exposed, whether we agree or disagree with their policy."

 

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