Olympics

A few days ago I posted a gee-whiz piece about Qik.com, and a brief video piece posted on the site by Noel Hidalgo, who works under the online handle noneck. Hidalgo had beat all the news agencies covering the group of pro-Tibetan demonstrators who climbed two light poles outside the Bird’s Nest stadium and managed…

Xinhua News Agency in Chinese is reporting a series of early morning “terrorist” attacks on markets, bars, and government targets today in Kuche county, in China’s far-western region of Xinjiang. A security guard died in the attacks. A second security guard, two paramilitary police, and two civilians were injured, and many buildings were damaged, according…

China’s media response to the story of the stabbing of two Americans was standard procedure: The government took charge of a sensitive story and determined what would be said. Hong Kong reporters might break new ground, but look at the mainland’s media coverage (here’s Kristin Jones’s analysis) and the only story you will see is…

Today’s news of an attack on tourists at a popular sightseeing spot in Beijing has been handled by Xinhua News Agency alone. Other news outlets are simply re-posting its account. This is the norm for sensitive issues. Xinhua is a part of the central government’s State Council and undergoes rigorous pre-censorship, which sets it apart from other Chinese news outlets (which are censored to…

CPJ has a lot of friends at the Foreign Correspondents Club of China; they have been a go-to resource for us for years. They released a statement early yesterday, on the morning of the day the Games opened. FCCC president Jonathan Watts (and The Guardian’s Beijng correspondent) outlined the situation going into the Games very…

Amid the fanfare of the Olympic opening ceremony today, a press release from Human Rights in China highlights pressure on dissidents and their families as Chinese authorities try to quash anything that threatens to disturb the long-awaited Games. Police are watching jailed journalist Lu Gengsong’s wife and daughter, and they told the wife of recently…

Images steal the day. Web sites around China were live-streaming the opening ceremony this evening (even as NBC insisted on broadcasting endless tips on Chinese manners, saving the Big Show for American prime time). Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily re-launched their sites to showcase photos. On 8/8/08 at 8 p.m., images beamed across the world of…

With the opening of the Beijing Games tonight, there is plenty being written about China’s emergence on the world stage and its assumption of a global leadership role, definitely on its own terms. But my favorite story of the day sets aside all the political and historical analysis and goes right to the competitive Olympic…

Last night, a staffer at Radio Television Hong Kong told me that he is worried about the timing of the appointment of a new head for RTHK. An official government announcement Thursday, the day before the Olympic Games open, said that 65-year-old Franklin Wong Wah-kay will become RTHK’s new head. A long-time Hong Kong government…

On the eve of the opening ceremony, Xinhua News Agency waxes philosophical about the torch’s journey tomorrow to the Bird’s Nest, its home for the next three weeks. It hasn’t been an easy road, and Xinhua refers to the “obstacles” the torch encountered in foreign cities, as well as the Sichuan earthquake in May that…