Web 2.0 Television

This post has been updated.  

Reporters Without Borders lists China among 13 countries targeted for a 24-hour protest against Internet censorhip. China's response: "Groundless". ("What, we censor? Ridiculous.")  

Meanwhile, Japanese media outlets are shifting their coverage away from the U.S. and Europe and towards China, despite some of the information access and other restrictions journalists face in that country. (After the jump,) Editors Weblog reports:

Among things that explain this renewed interest and presence, China’s economic and social boom, North Korea’s nuclear developments, or the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

There are now a total of 53 Japanese media correspondents in China – without counting Taiwan and Honk Kong. They were only 31 in 2001.

In Beijing alone, 38 correspondents from Japanese media now occupy the general bureau. The Mainichi and Sankei have both opened branches in Shanghai – after Mainichi closed its Honk Kong branch.

In contrast, Japanese companies have cut by half the average correspondents present in Moscow – from about three to only one or two.  This withdrawal also affects western Europe, as Nikkei pulled out of Zurich, or with Jiji Press and the Hokkaido Shimbun leaving Vienna.

Despite significant improvements in Chinese government-press relations since the 1990s, foreign journalists still encounter number of restrictions in their work, whether when questioning public official or for permissions to report outside of their designated city. “We have to take into account the likelihood that it will take time to complete procedures for official approval of our newsgathering activities,” a Yomiuri newspaper official said.

(See updates at bottom for more on China and Internet censorship.) 

And on a you-can't-buy-our-voice rather than a stop-silencing-us note, Mr. BuzzMachine (Jeff Jarvis) offers his rationale for refusing "to be the guy to deliver 40 lashes to Richard Edelman after his PR firm’s Wal-Mart blogging fiasco":

You cannot buy our word of mouth. It’s ours. You cannot buy buzz. You have to earn it. The only way to get either is to create a good product or service and to treat your customers with respect by listening to and being open and honest with them.

Concludes Jarvis in that post: "There was one reason I did consider going and that’s in the next post I’ll write, above." Link

Final note for now about media and democracy: Media-studying "Newsosaur" Alan Mutter finds that many the most-emailed stories during the midterm elections "had nothing to do with the election", writes Jim Romenesko:

[Mutter] says this suggests there's a major disconnect between what editors want to print and what readers want to read. I say this suggests that people know that their friends already have read a million stories about the election and don't want another one e-mailed to them.

No wonder, as Fleet Street 2.0 points out (via the NYTimes), blogs "take the lead" reporting problems at the polls, backed by Youtube evidence.

Plus, from Mathew Ingram: Comedy Central scooped 'em all on the Rumsfeld exit; those editors and their  Glaswegian summit — they still don't get it about Google News; and a summary of the I Want Media interview with the NYT's David Carr, who's back on the blog beat. 

UPDATE: China's Internet censorship means blocking blogs, too, and as Global Voices Online reports, it seems even a BOB-nominated twentysomething can't get no love.  

And let's not forget what that kind of government suppression of information and free expression means — GV's site links to the Reporters Without Borders "Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents." From the intro page, "Bloggers, the new heralds of free expression": 

Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest. Plenty of bloggers have been hounded or thrown in prison. One of the contributors to this handbook, Arash Sigarchi, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for posting several messages online that criticised the Iranian regime. His story illustrates how some bloggers see what they do as a duty and a necessity, not just a hobby. They feel they are the eyes and ears of thousands of other Internet users.

Image from huizen.daxis.nl