Beijing - Three months ahead to the Olympic Games in China, the situation of Chinese and foreign journalists in the country is anything but rosy. "Media conditions in China do not reflect the sort of change we were assured we would see after Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympic Games," said Bob Dietz, Asia coordinator of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), an organization based in New York.
"The International Olympic Committee and the (Chinese) government assured skeptics that the influx of Olympic ideals would wean the government from its obsession to regulate the flow of information. That has not happened," he added.
Worse, after the unrest in Tibet, China's propaganda apparatus initiated a campaign against "biased" foreign news reports in order to ward off global criticism of the country's suppression of the Tibetan uprising.
Chinese state media itself only publish the officially sanctioned version of the violent assaults of Tibetans on innocent Chinese on March 14 in Lhasa without mentioning the widespread, peaceful protests of Buddhist monks and their subsequent apprehension.
Reasons for discontent, such as the social and economic discrimination against Tibetans, are ignored.
"The near total media blackout on Tibet and the surrounding areas has not only made it difficult to confirm reports but it is a betrayal of official promises to ensure 'complete media freedom' in the run-up of the Olympics," wrote the human rights organization Amnesty International in a recent statement.
Since the beginning of 2007 foreign journalists were - under pre-olympic rules - allowed for the first time to travel freely within the country without having to apply for a travel permit.
While this improved the overall situation, the foreign press still reported in 2007 some 180 cases of obstruction of journalistic work, including violent assaults by police or hired bullies.
Additionally, there were reports of intimidation of journalistic sources.
Travelling to Tibet continued to constitute a problem and had to be approved, but after the unrest the central government issued a general travel ban to the Tibetan plateau as well as other troubled regions in neighboring provinces inhabited by a Tibetan majority.
The president of the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC), Melinda Liu, unsuccessfully demanded unrestricted access to Tibet.
"Reporting interference is not in the interest of the Chinese government which is trying to show a more open, transparent and accountable image to the world," she warned the leadership in Beijing.
But Beijing's hardliners didn't listen and continued to accuse Western media of not showing the "truth about Tibet," while preventing them from seeing for themselves.
At the same time, state media portrayed the anti-Chinese protests during the Olympic flame relay in many countries as malicious acts of sabotage.
Although 1.3 billion Chinese enthusiastically look forward to the Olympics, they are getting the impression that the world envies them the games.
The sense of nationalism the communist party uses to rally the people manifests itself in foul-mouthed accusations and even death threats against foreign journalists.
Names, addresses and phone numbers of "infringing journalists" are distributed via the internet. Meanwhile, the FCCC has advised its members to implement securitymeasures.
The controversy entirely supersedes the even more difficult situation suffered by Chinese journalists, who not only have to cope with censorship but also must fear arrest.
Since 1999 China has been the country with the most imprisoned journalists.
According to CPJ, at least 25 journalists are currently incarcerated in China, more than half of them because of articles they published on the internet.
They were convicted of "betrayal of state secrets" or "incitement to subvert state power", both accusations whose definition can be easily and willfully interpreted as needed.
For example, the latter already may apply if someone demands more democracy, which "undermines" the leadership role of the communist party guaranteed in China's constitution.
Every day editorial departments throughout the country receive instructions on which topics they have to avoid in their coverage.
There are three levels: Firstly, a total prohibition to cover a certain topic at all; secondly, the advice to not dispatch the news outlet's own journalists but to instead only publish the report supplied by the official Xinhua news agency; thirdly, to refrain from any editorial comments on certain topics, including caricatures.
The most sensitive topics include Beijing's air pollution, corruption, civil unrest, disasters and, of course, the three "T's": Tibet, Taiwan and Tiananmen, the latter describing any attempt to chronicle the bloody suppression of the democracy movement in 1989.
In order to control the increasing flow of information through the internet, authorities aggressively filter content, shut down websites and even delete comments in online forums.
Chinese internet users - a community of 220 million - must even be afraid of having their email messages monitored.
One case is that of journalist, Shi Tao, who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in 2005 when he was convicted of giving "state secrets" to hostile forces abroad.
Shi Tao had forwarded to an overseas web site official advice to his editorial department to be careful in publishing any articles on the anniversary of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
