DATELINE: HONG KONG
"I've learned not to expect the worst": Sandra Burton, Hong
Kong Bureau Chief, Time Magazine.
Summary: Sandra Burton
covered the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and the subsequent deaths
and imprisonment of Chinese dissidents. She dealt with Chinese
spokesmen who doggedly articulated the Communist Party line and who
vehemently denied even those deaths witnessed by Western
journalists.
Knight: You covered Beijing at the time of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations. You are now covering Hong Kong. What differences do you face as a journalist?
"The first thing that hits you is the manner. This government is the most transparent that Hong Kong has had. It is not as transparent as it pretends to be of course. But the manner of the British here and the officials who have come up here in the British system, is wonderfully civilised to Western eyes and to our taste. There is a desire to give enough information out so that their side of the story gets out in a good way.
The Chinese officials didn't have the style. So even if they had some good news which would show them in a good light they usually don't. Every government has spin control. The US governments spin to a disgusting degree and the Brits spin. But the Chinese don't spin they shove."
Knight: You seem to be saying that some of the Chinese officials weren't entirely civilised in their dealings with the media?
"Yeah. The [Chinese] Foreign Ministry who dealt with foreign journalists before Tiananmen and who now deal with journalists, have knowledge of the outside world. They are diplomats who have had other posts before coming to the Information Ministry to be the spokesmen. Those people were replaced for a couple of months after Tiananmen by a representative of the Prime Minister's office who was just disgusting. Nobody could bear to listen to him. After a couple of months he disappeared because he did enormous damage to China by being such a jerk."
Knight: So how will things be different for journalists when China takes control of Hong Kong?
"If Xinhua is the spokesman for Hong Kong then Hong Kong is doomed. But Chinese people in the Hong Kong government information service keep reminding me that Xinhua will not be the spokesperson for Hong Kong. The Hong Kong information service will continue to exist as part of the civil service and the Hong Kong Chinese who have come up in that service will still be speaking for the government. Still it shouldn't be as bad as Xinhua."
Knight: Will it be more difficult for journalists to get information in Hong Kong?
"Yes! I have every faith it will be harder?"
Knight: How can they make it harder?
"You can have somebody at the top who is not of the civil service. Somebody who doesn't co-operate. Someone who directs the civil service that there are things they can't give out. That would be the fist step. The way it is now, even if the governor and his people don't want you to know things, you can go down the line and get what you want. You can play them off against each other."
Knight: With your Beijing experience, if you were running the regime and you wanted to make life difficult for journalists in Hong Kong, what would you do?
"I would put it a great PR guy. Somebody we all like. Just as they have put in a governor or Chief executive who is well liked may be not by the press but who is respected in the outside world. Somebody who has credibility as a Hong Kong person. So when we try to insinuate that China is pulling the strings and being his ventriloquist, he replies," I am a Hong Kong person. Hong Kong is being run by the Hong Kong people!" They have already sort of done it with the Chief Executive [Tung Chee-Hwa]."