Informed 12


International Censorship spreads virus


By Tim Dawson


At the end of January, New York Times Beijing reporter Amy Qin arrived in Wuhan, a week into lockdown. Her dispatches painted a troubling picture. Hundreds were dead, thousands infected, and nearly twenty million people confined to their homes. She revealed official confusion and poor planning, as well as cheering stories of self-help – among them Zhang Lei, who volunteered daily to delivering groceries to the housebound. On 17 March, Qin, learned that she


was to be expelled from China, along with all the other journalists working for US papers. She fared beter than Chen Qiushi, a lawyer and Chinese citizen journalist. He reported from Wuhan around the same time and has since disappeared On 1 March the Chinese government


ordered that all “content should be mainly positive, upliſting and devoid of rumours”. Some have gone so far to argue that without information suppression in China, the crisis now engulfing the globe might have been avoided. Te paradox is the absence of dependable, authoritative reporting has prompted Chinese citizens to the most extraordinary ingenuity to share information. Criticism of Chinese leader Xi Jinping on social media appears in code, his name is transposed for ‘Trump’ for example. Wuhan Whistle has been translated in multiple tongues and is reposted as oſten as it is taken down. “Te control over information by the Chinese authorities at this time is highly concerning” says International Federation of Journalists general secretary Anthony Bellanger. “Access to public information is critical, if people are to be persuaded that governments are acting in their best interests and that the sacrifices this crisis demands


Proper reporting in China could averted the Covid-19 pandemic


of us all are worthwhile.” An equally disturbing picture emerges


from Iran, where the coronavirus struck early and where the media also suffers dramatic repression. Official statistics suggest that nearly 2,000 people have lost their lives as a result of the virus. Te World Health Organisation believes that the figure could be five times higher. Without a free media, the real figure may never be known. What is certain, however, is that official disinformation has intensified the crisis. Regular flights between Iran and China continued long aſter the scale of the virus was understood – in part because of strong economic and geopolitical ties. Such was the scale of denial in official Iranian media that the country’s first Covid-19 death was announced before any infection from the virus had been publicly confirmed. India is in an earlier stage of the crisis than the UK. In Kashmir and Jammu, however, the internet has not been available since their special constitutional status was revoked seven months ago. It leaves eight


million people without quality, up-to- date information about protecting themselves from infection. Tat the health emergency has not prompted Prime Minister Modi to relax the clampdown demonstrates a disturbing indifference to public health in Kashmir, where 95 per cent of the population are Muslims. Te first death from was reported in Kashmir a few days ago. Quite apart from being personally


uprooted, the real issue for Amy Qin is the stories that will now be untold. “I keep coming back to my last trip, to Wuhan, where people were so willing to talk - they wanted the world to know what was happening to them and to hold their government accountable”. If a deeper and lasting global commitment to safeguarding free expression is one change that emerge from the current crisis, it might just be out best guard against the next pandemic.


Censorship also struck Guardian journalist Ruth Michaelson, forced to leave Egypt aſter questioning the country’s official death toll.


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