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══════════════════【立報】═══════════════════ |
| 教 育 專 題 深 入 報 導《2008-01-04》 |
| 本期內容 | |
| ◎國際專題：新聞自由在部落格找到出路 | |
| ◎真相 就在部落格 | |
| ◎中國公民記者避開審查與批評China's "citizen" reporters dodge censors and critics | |
| 國際專題：新聞自由在部落格找到出路 | |
| 策劃、編譯■陳銳嬪、陳玫伶 | |
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技術門檻低，但是傳播效果卻得以跨越國家以及新聞自由限制的部落格， 已然成為公民記者的大平台。 公民新聞與公民記者的出現， 讓傳播權從當權者、媒體擁有者以及廣告主手中， 轉移到一般民眾的手中。 發生在世界各地每個角落的新聞， 現在終於可以不依靠主流與傳統媒體， 透過公民記者傳播出去。 這個正在興起、還會持續興盛的現象， 讓我們看到公民力量的崛起， 也讓受到國家機器壓制的新聞自由找到了出路。 |
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| （回目錄） | |
| 真相 就在部落格 | |
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不久前，孟加拉發生了一件不該發生的事，這件事情的嚴重性足以導致政府垮台。但是這件事卻常在孟加拉各地發生。 朗斯（Rangs）是孟加拉大型的商業建築，一般商業大廈只獲准建到6層樓高，它卻獲得當地發展部門的特例，建到22樓。但是這棟違例的大樓在被檢舉後，被最高法庭諭令拆除。2007年12月13日，該大廈拆除期間，發生了嚴重的工地意外，造成了至少10人死亡。 當地一位部落客法利哈‧卡林，在部落格中提出了種種關於行政結構上的質問，當然你在主流媒體上不會看見這些疑問，也沒有人會要求政府要對此次災禍負責。曾經獲得世界新聞攝影獎的法利哈指出，主流媒體只會報導傷亡人數以及現場情況。 他在自己的部落格引述孟加拉電視台記者皮斯拉‧拉澤的現場手記，皮斯拉提到了現場的慘況，例如一位從遠處趕來的父親，他一直對皮斯拉訴說：「他們不讓我領取我孩子的屍體。」皮斯拉也認為，應該有人為此事負責。 除了引述皮斯拉的文字，法利哈也在部落格上加入了一個獨立媒體的照片網，這個照片網專門拍攝主流媒體不會報導的新聞照片。 雖然孟加拉部落客法利哈與皮斯拉都在主流媒體工作，但是他們選擇透過部落格發布事情更深層的原貌，也提出了自己的質問。可以預見的是，公民記者的力量也正在孟加拉崛起。 （來源／http://shahidul.wordpress.com/2007/12/16/） |
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| （回目錄） | |
| 中國公民記者避開審查與批評China's "citizen" reporters dodge censors and critics | |
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中國壓抑新聞媒體，而興起的網路，讓公民記者找到了機會與觀眾。政府的監控總趕不上網路新聞迅速散播的速度。 部落客得以避開審查，為中國境內貧困與弱勢發聲的能力，讓部落客尋得一個罕有的商機──發布「未經審查的新聞」。這些弱勢者的新聞不會在主流媒體出現。 在網路上以「左拉」（Zola）為名的周曙光，是一名公民記者，他發現，當初自己因為替弱勢者發聲而受到網友的崇拜，但是當網友發現他收取這些弱勢者的金錢來作報導時，他隨即受到藐視。 今年26歲的周曙光本來在湖南省當一名小菜販，由於報導重慶市建築包商用不法途徑取得土地的新聞後，搖身成為頗有名氣的部落客。 周曙光說：「本來我到重慶只是想賣菜，但是我想，如果能有點名聲，賣菜的生意也許會更好。」他也被當地媒體稱為中國第一個公民記者。 中國境內官商勾結的事情時有所聞，財源窘困的地方政府經常和包商共謀，聘僱地痞流氓，把土地所有權硬生生地從手無寸鐵的人民身上搶走。公民記者這個稱謂足以讓這位瘦高、戴眼鏡的資訊系畢業生名聲散播開來，那些土地被掠奪的人，紛紛向他懇求，希望他可以幫忙伸張正義。 周曙光用募到的7千元人民幣當成到重慶採訪的費用，此外，他也拿村民的錢。他強調，花費都用在交通支出以及報導不法勾當的工作上。 周曙光在北京一家旅館接受訪問時說道：「我把它當成旅行、娛樂，而不是工作。」 對於絕望喪氣的農民來說，眼前家園將要失去，卻無能挽救，而他們的困境又無法吸引中國受到壓制的媒體目光與報導；給周曙光錢作報導，是相對值得的。 「沒有一個案例是政府和村民溝通過的，土地擁有者沒有發聲的管道。」周曙光說。 箝制言論 遇到敏感的話題，像是官員貪污賄賂，或重大災難，中國當局常常直接封住報紙編輯和電視節目製作人的口。 官員雖然擁有些許媒體掌控權，卻仍擋不住老百姓把令當局尷尬的影片上載到網路上，在審查員還沒刪除或封鎖之前，早有數百萬人瀏覽過了。 去年6月，廈門一化學工廠排放有毒物質，於是民眾聚集街上，組織罕見的千人抗議遊行，政府下令媒體不得報導該新聞。在這起事件中，部落格取代電視，成為第一手消息來源，傳播最新的消息。 廈門政府下令施放催淚瓦斯驅逐抗議民眾的影片立刻在網路上流竄，部落格和聊天室討論相當熱烈，讓散佈在各處的中國網路監督機制無力阻擋。 同月6月，一封4百名父親連署簽名的公開信被公布在網路上，請求協助他們尋找被綁架的孩子們，進而揭發了山西省磚窯廠有上千名大人小孩被集體奴役的醜聞。 大學生因為畢業證書問題抗議的影片與照片，也被部落客上傳到網路上。當然，媒體沒有報導此事。 無疆界記者組織亞洲辦公室主任文生‧伯薩爾表示：「人們上網，是因為無法從傳統媒體獲得他們想知道的。」根據2007年調查，中國在世界言論自由排名位居169國家的第163名。 雖然中國被稱為世界著名的記者監獄，目前至少有50名網路異議者還在獄中。但是，伯薩爾估計，中國的公民記者還是有上百名，甚至千名。 這些人經過國際人權團體和非營利組織的專業培訓，學習多元媒體報導技巧。也有些人透過當地科技愛好者的幫助，把報導放上網。 「他們這麼做，有的是因為社會承諾，或者是政治承諾。但是有人是為了錢，因為他們可以從村民或居民當中獲得報酬。」伯薩爾說。 社會責任？ 地方媒體不報導政府貪污腐敗的事件，無形中提供了公民記者的報導契機，卻可能讓有心人士抓到為非作歹的機會。 記者要求遮羞費，或者自稱為記者的人要求遮羞費，是中國常見的詐財騙局。而網路更被當成假新聞與賺大錢的平台。 有關當局在去年10月，把4名男子送進監獄，罪名是勒索當地官員，威脅要在報導中把濫用土地的罪狀歸咎到他們身上。 去年1月，北京一家地方報的記者因為調查山西省一處非法礦脈而被暴徒毆打。當地官員表示該記者缺少證據，還建議他向該礦脈公司收取賄賂，做為不報導的代價。 左拉坦言，當初在網路上欽佩他勇氣的人，在知道他幫助村民購買網域名稱、架設網站並且上線報導村民的困境都有收費之後，有人開始嘲弄他。 他不願為此道歉，並且在自己的部落格發表長文回應批評。他說他沒有別的意圖，只是想要成名，希望為他在湖南的賣菜生意帶來一些宣傳。 他說：「我不要大家認為我是什麼偶像還是英雄，我不用負那些責任，政府才應該擔當起這些責任。」 （路透社） China's muzzled press and burgeoning Internet have given citizen reporters an audience and an opportunity -- however fleeting -- to spread news quicker than government censors can control it. But the ability of bloggers to dodge censors and provide a voice for China's poor and disadvantaged by covering news events Beijing would rather be left unreported has also given some bloggers the chance to profit from disseminating a rare commodity in China -- uncensored news. Zhou Muguang, who blogs under the name of "Zola", is a citizen reporter who found that the initial admiration he received from Internet surfers for championing the downtrodden soon turned to scorn for taking their money. Zhou, a 26-year-old vegetable-seller from a small town in China's heartland province of Hunan, became famous after blogging about his experiences "covering" a David-and-Goliath battle between developers and residents in the booming southwestern city of Chongqing. "Originally I went to Chongqing with selling vegetables in mind. I thought that if I could get famous, then business would be better," said Zhou, who was lauded, if inaccurately, as China's "first citizen reporter" in local media reports. The moniker was enough for the slight, bespectacled former IT student to be solicited by others battling eviction orders across China's vast heartland, where cash-strapped local governments often collude with developers and hired thugs to seize land from powerless residents. Zhou, who took some 7,000 yuan ($940) in donations to finance his Chongqing trip, has also taken money from residents, he insists, to cover the cost of travel and reporting on their property disputes. "It's travel, it's entertainment. It's not work," Zhou said during an interview at a hotel in Beijing. For desperate residents facing eviction from their homes, and unable to draw attention to their plights in China's controlled press, it's a price worth paying. "In not one single case has the government been in communication with the residents. The home-owners have no way of raising their voice," Zhou said. GAG-ORDERS Local propaganda offices in China regularly bar newspaper editors and TV station directors from reporting on sensitive issues such as high-profile corruption cases and disasters. But authorities have little sway over web-savvy citizens filming embarrassing incidents and posting them on the Internet. Often by the time censors delete such postings, they've already been seen by tens of thousands of people. In June, a government order scotching media coverage of a rare demonstration involving thousands of residents in the southeastern port city of Xiamen saw bloggers replace TV stations as the first source for up-to-the-minute coverage of the protest against local government plans for a toxic chemical factory. Video footage and photos of gas-masked protesters marching in Xiamen appeared online instantaneously, spreading across blogs and chat-rooms too quickly for China's pervasive Internet surveillance machine to intercept them. In the same month, a letter posted on a popular local Web site claiming to be written by 400 fathers appealing for help to find their kidnapped children, ignited a national scandal leading to the rescue of thousands of adults and children forced to work as slaves in brick kilns in northern Shanxi province. Bloggers have posted photographs and videos of unreported student riots this year sparked by anger over the wording on their graduate diplomas. "People are going through the Internet because they cannot get what they want through conventional media," said Vincent Brossard, Asia desk chief of Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based press rights group which ranked China 163rd out of 169 countries in a survey on press freedom last month. Brossard estimates there are hundreds, "if not thousands", of citizen reporters in China, despite its status as the world's leading jailer of journalists, and where at least 50 "cyber-dissidents" remain behind bars. Some are trained by foreign human rights groups and NGOs in the arts of multi-media reporting and many enjoy the support of local tech enthusiasts who keep their reports online, even as censors scramble to delete them. "Some do it because they have a social commitment, or even a political commitment. Some people do it for the money, because they can get reimbursements from villagers or citizens interested in seeing their problems put on the Internet," Brossard said. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY? While government corruption unchecked by local media may have created a market for citizen reporters to exploit, it has also created more sinister avenues for opportunists. Scams involving journalists and people posing as journalists to demand hush money are common in China, where the Internet is also used as a platform for muck-raking and fake news. Authorities jailed four men in October who tried to blackmail a local official by threatening to write incriminating information about government abuse of power in land usage. In January, a local reporter for a Beijing-based newspaper was beaten to death by hired thugs during an investigation into an unlicensed coal mine in Shanxi province. Officials there said he lacked accreditation and suggested he may have been seeking payoffs in return for not reporting problems at the mine. Zhou's frank admission of taking payment to help residents buy domain names, set up Web sites and publicize their plights online have earned him derision from Internet surfers, many of whom initially applauded his pluck. He remains unapologetic, however, and hits back at critics in lengthy blog posts, saying he never had any intention but to make a name for himself -- and hopefully some publicity for his vegetable business in Hunan. "I don't want people to think I'm some kind of idol or hero," he said. "I don't have that responsibility. That's the government's responsibility." REUTERS |
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| （回目錄） | |
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