TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/060589/06058900.004

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 5KB | 79 lines

PRESS, Page 64

Thrust onto Center Stage

Reporters in Beijing scramble to cover a confusing drama


    CNN Tokyo bureau chief John Lewis and his four-member crew
arrived at Beijing's Tiananmen Square to spend another night
covering the standoff between Chinese demonstrators and government
troops. Decked out in ponchos and straw hats to protect themselves
against the rain, the crew surveyed the scene as tens of thousands
of protesters continued to defy the martial-law edict ordering them
to disperse. Exhausted after working two straight days with little
or no sleep, Lewis and his colleagues curled up on the square's wet
pavement and went to sleep. At sunrise, as Lewis awoke, he found
dozens of amused Chinese demonstrators taking pictures of him.

    For the U.S. journalists who have spent the past three weeks
covering the historic protest in Tiananmen Square, the mixture of
curiosity, awe and fascination was mutual. "Long ago, when I
dreamed of being a reporter," said CBS EVENING NEWS anchor Dan
Rather last week, "this is the sort of story I dreamed of
covering." Aside from its inherent drama, the China story is
special because it has thrust the journalists themselves onto
center stage. Aware that the eyes of the world were upon them, the
students played to the TV cameras to voice their demands for
freedom and democracy. Like the demonstrators, reporters have been
operating under the constant threat of a crackdown. Meanwhile, the
shifting working conditions imposed on them by the government
became a weather vane of the power struggle going on behind the
scenes.

    First came the May 20 declaration of martial law, which
restricted journalists from conducting interviews or taking
photographs. It soon became apparent, however, that the rules were
hardly being enforced. The Voice of America's Mandarin news
broadcasts, the most credible source of information in the eyes of
the demonstrators, were reportedly jammed, but only on some
frequencies. Live TV transmissions by satellite were suspended and
restored, then suspended again. As the possibility of live coverage
came and went, videotaped reports flowed freely out of the country
to satellite stations in Tokyo, Hong Kong and even Moscow. Entry
into China proved surprisingly easy as journalistic reinforcements
poured into Beijing from around the world. One 747 arriving late
last week carried only 50 passengers, 40 of whom were newspeople.

    By the time the latecomers arrived, the story was in a holding
pattern. The previous week's images of hundreds of thousands of
Tiananmen demonstrators were no longer news. "The China story is
beginning to elude us," said ABC's Ted Koppel in one of last week's
most honest appraisals. "There appears to be a struggle for power
at the highest level of government in China, but we cannot see it
or measure it or describe it in any detail."

    To fill the gap, CBS tried to recapture some of the drama of
the preceding week. When China Central Television announced that
it would be shutting off its satellite-transmission facility on
Wednesday, CBS booked the last block of time, hoping to recreate
a scene similar to the one a few days earlier, when viewers saw
Chinese officials ordering Rather off the air. Sure enough, that
night's CBS EVENING NEWS showed Rather at his anchor desk in New
York City, interviewing Beijing correspondent John Sheahan. When
Sheahan's picture suddenly disappeared from the screen, Rather
abruptly cut him off in midsentence, even though Sheahan's
telephone connection remained intact. "We timed it so that if (the
satellite) did get cut, it would happen during the report,"
admitted producer Lane Venardos.

    With the importance of images fading, temporarily at least,
there was little in the way of solid analysis. After declaring
martial law on nationwide TV, Premier Li Peng was not seen in
public for five days; Deng Xiaoping and party leader Zhao Ziyang,
the other key players in the power struggle, remained out of sight
even longer. During this period of uncertainty, solid information
was the scarcest of commodities in China, and wild rumors abounded.
There were even reports that Deng was fleeing into retirement in
the U.S. Protesters in Shanghai, Xian and Lanzhou staged memorial
services for Beijing hunger strikers, although none had died.
"People are learning about major government changes and about the
biggest student movement in China's history from Popsicle sellers
and newspaper dealers," said Zhang Weiguo, a reporter on Shanghai's
World Economic Herald. "This is not a way to inform the people."