Ethics in China's wild west

Abstract

Exposing human rights abuse in "closed countries" is a vital journalistic role - but are local people who help being put at unacceptable risk? asks American academic Barnett. "The basic danger faced by informants in serious cases is clear," he writes. "Imprisonment. In a famous case in November of last year, for example, in Lithang, a Tibetan area of Sichuan, three Tibetan nomads - Adruk Lopo, Jamyang Kunkyen and Lothok - were sentenced to ten, nine and three years in jail respectively for trying to send photographs or information about a small protest to 'foreign organisations', probably news agencies or Tibetan language broadcasters in the U.S. And, "...there are still those [journalists] who will place local informants at significant risk in order to get interviews or access to closed areas. The dubious history of closed country journalism poses deep questions about journalistic methods"