Email requesting Games media avoid 'five forbidden topics'

30 Jul 2008, 12:17 pm
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This is copy of the email sent to Dateline by the Channel Seven joint-venture company, Beijing International Media Services Company Ltd (BMC).

Below is a copy of the email sent to Dateline by the Channel Seven joint-venture company, Beijing International Media Services Company Ltd (BMC).

It refers to "five forbidden topics", warning of "disastrous consequences" for the company and its clients should reports on these topics be covered by the media.

Dear *****,

I was wondering if you are able to elaborate please as to the topics you plan to cover here in Beijing.

As I'm sure that you are aware, there are guidelines that have been put in place for international media coming to Beijing / China in 2008 and there are politically sensitive topics that the Government has asked the foreign media not to cover. Officially all media are welcome to come to China if the topics being covered relate to the Olympic Games.

There has been a media hand book made available on the Beijing 2008 website which you can download. This document is very broad in its descriptions and will be followed up by another document outlining exactly the topics that cant be reported on.

While BMC is not an organization that has been set up to police these policies, it is a company that has it's majority shareholder as the Beijing Government.

This year BMC is focused on providing the biggest media facility and the best Olympic and iconic live sites in sporting and Olympic history. In order to create and successfully achieve the goals of the project BMC relies on the support and assistance of many government departments.

If BMC was seen to be supporting an international program who's intentions were to cover any of the 5 forbidden topics, the repercussions for BMC and its clients could be disastrous for the Olympic project and any further support for the remaining 26 years of the joint venture.

While we try to stay out of the politics and concentrate on the issues at hand it is sometimes unavoidable and with so much time, effort and money invested in this project we need to protect the investment and its partners.

Should you be coming to Beijing to cover Olympic related topics, then we would be only to happy to assist you with your requirements but should you be coming to Beijing to produce segments and stories on any of the forbidden topics, then I'm sorry but we are not going to be able to offer our support this time around.

I know that media generally needs a certain amount of latitude to be able to report on the real issues but I hope that you understand our situation and why we are not able to offer you our support.

Should you like to talk about this further or the five forbidden topics then please don't hesitate to call me.

Cheers

*****

***** *****

Chief Operating Officer

Beijing International Media Services Company Ltd. (BMC)

Website: www.bjmediaservices.com

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