(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF report on the press freedom situation in Tibet: Tibet: The underground press resists repression In 1950, when the Red Army invaded Tibet, no independent newspapers were published in the country. Only Yui-pyoq-so-so-sar-gyur-me-long, a weekly published in Darjeeling, India, provided news in the Tibetan language. Fifty years later, the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF report on the press freedom situation in Tibet:
Tibet: The underground press resists repression
In 1950, when the Red Army invaded Tibet, no independent newspapers were published in the country. Only Yui-pyoq-so-so-sar-gyur-me-long, a weekly published in Darjeeling, India, provided news in the Tibetan language. Fifty years later, the print and broadcast media that are allowed to operate are all controlled by the Chinese authorities. Only 20 or so clandestine publications, appearing sporadically, dare to defy the Chinese Communist Party’s monopoly on information. Although this total lack of freedom reflects the situation in China generally, in Tibet official repression of views supporting autonomy or independence for the area is systematic. The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said that of the 135 Tibetans arrested by the Chinese police in 1998, 56 were being sanctioned for peacefully expressing their opinions. A large majority were put on trial for “threatening state security”. Writing graffiti in support of independence, putting up posters or making “anti-Chinese” statements in public are all punishable by heavy jail sentences. The centre said that in 1999, 615 Tibetans were in prison for purely political reasons, and 62 of them were serving sentences of more than ten years. In the same year, ten prisoners are believed to have died under torture.
At the end of the 1980s, the Chinese authorities stepped up controls on taking publications, reports, videotapes and films in and out of Tibet. Listening to foreign radio stations broadcasting in Tibetan, particularly The Voice of America, became an offence against state security.
Foreign journalists are also prevented from working freely in Tibet. They are forced to seek permission from the Department of Foreign Affairs for the Tibet Autonomous Region and in most cases, their requests are refused. Some foreign news agencies have been unable to go to Tibet since 1997. When permission is granted, the foreign journalists are taken in hand by the Chinese authorities from start to finish. They are accompanied everywhere by officials and their list of meetings and interviews must be drawn up in conjunction with the authorities. On several occasions, the authorities have invited foreign journalists to take part in organised trips. Kept under surveillance by guides and police officers, the journalists are not allowed to depart from the official schedule. An American media correspondent, invited to Tibet two years ago, told how the authorities “take you by the hand and don’t let go, probably for fear that you may collect some information about repression”.
A Reporters Sans Frontières mission went to Dharamsala and New Delhi, India, from 24 February to 2 March to find out about violations of press freedom in Tibet.
How the Chinese Communist Party controls the media
In Tibet, even more than in China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) maintains firm control of both print and broadcast media. Until the start of the 1980s, very few publications were available in Tibet. Today at least 180 have been counted, from Tibet Youth Weekly, the communist youth wing’s newspaper, launched in 1985, to Tibet Radio and TV, a weekly guide to the programmes of radio and television stations, launched in 1989. A report issued by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, dated July 1995, said that 55 publications were available in the autonomous region: 23 in Tibetan, 30 in Mandarin and two in English. Four years later, in February 1999, the agency reported that the region had 16 newspapers, 34 magazines, 67 bookshops and four printing works.
The Tibet Daily, published in both Tibetan and Mandarin, is the organ of the CCP’s Tibetan committee and the main newspaper available in Lhasa. Started in 1956 and run exclusively by Chinese, it does little more than publish reports translated from the official China Daily. Some local news is included, mostly concerning the work of the Chinese authorities. Dorjee Tsering, a Tibetan journalist who spent six years working for the Tibet Daily and is now living in exile in India, said: “About 99% of the news published in the newspaper was translated from Xinhua agency reports.” He said the daily was quite popular with the Tibetan public because it also published poems and serials. Other dailies, such as the Tibetan-language Lhasa Evening News, launched in 1985 by the Lhasa committee of the CCP and specialising in financial news, are also controlled by official bodies. Newspapers in the Tibetan language are also published in regions inhabited by Tibetans but forming part of other Chinese provinces, such as Qinghai Daily, launched in October 1949 and with a circulation of 5,000 for the Tibetan version and 20,000 for the Chinese version, and Sichuan Daily. Similarly, radio and television stations such as Tibet Television, Lhasa TV and Tibetan Radio are under Chinese government control.
In 1960, the publicly owned Tibetan Radio put out its first programmes. But it was only in September 1973 that the station began broadcasting in Tibetan and Mandarin. And it was not until 1978 that Chinese state television, CCT, broadcast to Tibet for the first time after a relay station was built in the province. In 1985 the authorities launched Tibet Television. Five years later, Tibet Television’s coverage was extended to the whole of Tibet but at first viewers were still only able to receive programmes in Mandarin. In October 1999, five hours of programmes in Mandarin and Tibetan were broadcast by satellite. Zhaxi Cerdan, deputy director of Tibet Television, quoted by the Xinhua news agency, said the satellite broadcasts were intended to “inform members of the Tibetan minority in their own language about internal and foreign affairs”.
Official radio and television are the main means of passing on CCP propaganda. Speeches by party leaders are broadcast regularly, and there is no shortage of warnings against “counter-revolutionary activities”. In April 1990, a few days before martial law was lifted, a CCP leader issued a warning to “separatists” during a Lhasa TV newscast: “We will punish hostile elements with the iron hand of the democratic dictatorship of the people.” The communist government has never hesitated to use the media as a political weapon. The Tibetan edition of the weekly Hongqi (Red Flag), published until 1980, attempted to justify attacks against the Buddhist hierarchy, and particularly the destruction of monasteries, in the name of the “necessary dictatorship of the proletariat”.
Radio and television journalists are forced to apply the official policy of “sinisation” of the Tibetan language. According to Chakemo Tso, a Tibetan journalist living in exile in Dharamsala, newscasters are told to drop their Tibetan accents and use pronunciation that is close to Mandarin. She claimed the Chinese used the media “to humiliate the Tibetans and destroy their culture”.
Some magazines published in Beijing contain news about Tibet. China’s Tibet, a monthly published in Tibetan and Chinese, features reports on various subjects concerning the autonomous region. The Dalai Lama is often mentioned: he is referred to as a “separatist”.
“We were all afraid”
In the state media, Tibetan and Chinese journalists work under the constant threat of censorship and sanctions. Tibetan journalists living in exile in India, interviewed by Reporters Sans Frontières, emphasised the climate of fear that reigns in editorial offices. Tibetan journalists are particularly closely watched because they are often suspected of supporting autonomy or independence.
Chinese journalists, most of whom are members of the CCP, are running those media. They enforce drastic censorship and impose editorial decisions about which no discussion is possible. Tsering Wangchuk, a reporter and presenter with Radio Lhassa from 1988 to 1993 who has been living in exile in Dharamsala since 1993, said that every day the editor gave journalists instructions about what events they should cover. The editorial staff, which in 1993 was made up of three Tibetan journalists and 17 Chinese, was expected to “inform listeners about the positive side of the Chinese authorities’ work”. Any news about the activities of the government in exile, the Dalai Lama, religious freedom or human rights was strictly banned from the airwaves.
“We were all afraid. Anyone who defies the censors can expect the worst”, Tsering Wangchuk said. That was the reason for widespread self-censorship and the relatively small number of journalists in prison. He recalled the case of a Chinese reporter from Beijing who was dismissed by Radio Lhasa and forced to leave Tibet after investigating allegations that at least eight Chinese people had been murdered by the police. The serial killings, which took place at Gonjar Zong in the early 1990s, were never covered by media published in Tibet.
Chakemo Tso said that one of his colleagues from the radio station Tso Nub, which broadcasts in the north of Tibet, had been threatened by his bosses in September 1998 after he tried to broadcast a report about a Buddhist monastery that was in conflict with the authorities. The reporter was summoned by the station’s Chinese director and forbidden to conduct any further inquiries into religious matters.
Chakdor Tsering, a journalist with the quarterly literary journal Daser, published in Tsoe, in the Kanlho region of Gansu province, was arrested by the police in January 1997. Known for his articles on Tibetan literature, he had already been arrested and held for at least ten months, probably in 1995. According to some sources, the journalist was planning to publish some poems by Hortsang Jigme, a poet living in exile who had been banned by the Chinese authorities. Officials accused him of attempting to publish “counter-revolutionary pamphlets”. Three months after he was arrested, his family was informed that he was being held at the Machu (Maqu in Chinese) prison in Kanlho province. According to Tibet Information Network, Chakdor Tsering was held in very harsh conditions in order to “extract confessions” from him. Dolkar Kyap, who was kept prisoner at the same jail for three months, said prisoners of conscience were separated from the rest: “We were crammed into cells of about ten square metres. We were kept in heavy chains. The guards, armed with machineguns, would beat you if you complained.” Chakdor Tsering was released sometime during the second half of 1999. Pal Drugmo, a Tibetan journalist who came to Dharamsala in January 2000, said Tsering had been taken back as a member of the Daser editorial team.
In 1993 Chakdor Tsering’s uncle was arrested by police in the Kanlho region, where he owned a stationer’s shop. The authorities accused him of photocopying and distributing poems by exiled writer Hortsang Jigme. The police said he was planning to pass them on to underground publications. He was released three days later.
The underground press fights back
Since the end of the 1980s, about 20 clandestine publications have been counted in Tibet. Written by hand and stencilled by hand to produce perhaps 100 copies, the underground press is first and foremost the work of campaigners for the Tibetan cause, and of monks. These publications, usually consisting of about 20 loose sheets stapled together, often reprint articles written by authors or lamas living in exile or who have been banned from publication in Tibet. If the writers are found, they face severe jail sentences. Menp Dorjee, an academic aged 55, was arrested in 1997 for writing and publishing an article about the Dalai Lama. He was imprisoned for a year and a half at the jail in the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Malho.
According to a former prisoner of opinion from the Tibetan province of Amdo, at least seven clandestine publications are available in that part of eastern Tibet: Laydok, published in Machu district, Kanlho region, since at least 1994, Malung Chen Chap, Lu Chab Ngumo, distributed in Luchu district, Kanlho region, Sang Chu Lue Thang, distributed in the town of Chone since the early 1990s, and Machu Lubda, published in Machu district since 1992.
Dawa Tsering, a refugee working for the weekly Tibetan Bulletin, said Kham Gawa had been published secretly in the early 1990s by Tibetan officials who supported the Dalai Lama. It was first stuck on walls in the main cities of central Tibet and later passed around secretly. Like most clandestine publications, Kham Gawa was forced to stop publishing after police stepped up the search to find out who was producing it. Another recurring problem shared by the underground press is lack of money, which explains why these publications appear irregularly and in small quantities.
Tilay Tsering, a monk living in exile in India since 1996, said a monthly published by monks from the Tabrang Tashik monastery first appeared at the end of 1999. Several hundred copies were distributed to monasteries and Buddhist schools. It contained mostly articles on religious and cultural subjects, and very occasionally some political news. In an effort to avoid repression, the monastery decided to impose self-censorship concerning current affairs. Even so, political metaphors may be found hidden in a poem: the Dalai Lama might be referred to as a “sacred mountain” or the “lion of the snows”, which appears on the Tibetan flag as a symbol of independence. As a result, the Chinese authorities have for three years banned use of the Tibetan word for this legendary animal. A Lhasa writer was reportedly arrested in 1997 after police found an article including the word at his home. He is believed to still be in prison.
Producing these newspapers involves major risks. In Tibet, people have been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for writing “Free Tibet” on walls. Dolkar Kyap, who was jailed for three years for putting up posters and selling audio tapes from India, said four monks had been arrested in March 1996 in the town of Tsochon and had not been heard of since. Damchoe Gyatso, 27, ran the clandestine literary magazine Zong Cha Rangme Goda with Jigme Tendar, Damchoe Kalden and Phuntsog. The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in December 1996 that the four monks, students at the Nga-rig Kye-tsel Ling school at Kumbum monastery, were arrested along with 17 others. The authorities reportedly accused them of “counter-revolutionary activities” and the magazine was banned. However, it is difficult to state with certainty that the monks were arrested because they had been publishing the magazine. Tibet Information Network said they had also handed out at their school a prayer by the Dalai Lama for the young Panchen Lama, who was being held by the Chinese authorities.
Samdrup Tsering, a Tibetan historian, bookseller and author of numerous articles in Tibetan cultural journals, particularly Drangchar, was arrested on 16 July 1993 in Zilling (Xining in Chinese) in Qinghai province. The police accused him of “counter-revolutionary activities”. In 1992 he had written an article headed “The clarion call that is awakening the ignorant masses”, which made him famous in Tibetan intellectual circles. He was released in 1997 and since then has been working as a translator. It is impossible for him to have any articles published.
Radio: the main threat to the monopoly on news
Before the Chinese invasion Tibet had only one radio station, Radio Lhasa, which was set up with the help of the American government. In 1945 the United States sent Tibet some transmitters and three studios, along with technicians to install the equipment and train Tibetan journalists. But it was only five years later, in January 1950, that the station put out its first programmes – half an hour per day – from Lhasa. Shortly afterwards, the Tibetan government set up a second station in Chamdo province, and then a third in the town of Nagchuka, north-east Tibet. Just under a year after the launch of that first station, the Chinese invasion brought Tibet’s broadcasting experiments to an abrupt end. In 1954 the Chinese authorities launched a radio station in Tibetan, but it was not until May 1996 that another independent Tibetan station, Voice of Tibet (VOT), was launched, thanks to financing from a Norwegian foundation. VOT was the idea of a group of Tibetan journalists who had noticed a tightening of controls at the Chinese border with Nepal in 1989, with audio tapes in Tibetan systematically confiscated, making it increasingly difficult to bring news into Tibet. Initially hosted by Feba, a Christian radio station based in the Seychelles, VOT was forced to set up its own transmitter in Kazakhstan, central Asia, when the Chinese threatened to jam all Feba’s programmes in September 1996. Then in 1997, the Chinese used the programmes of Easy FM, produced jointly with an Australian press group, to block out VOT’s broadcasting frequency. The jamming stopped after the Australian station protested. In December 1998 it was the turn of Radio Canada Internationale to be used by the Beijing authorities to jam the Tibetan station. Officials of the state-run Canadian radio complained to the Chinese, and the jamming stopped the next day.
The director of VOT, Oystein Alme, said the Chinese began systematically jamming the station’s programmes again on 14 January 2000. The decision was even announced publicly at a CCP rally in Lhasa. Using a transmitter based in Kunming, the Chinese put out programmes in Mandarin or simply noise over VOT’s frequencies, which have nonetheless been recognised by the relevant international authorities. Lobsang Tsultrim Jeshong, editor-in-chief at VOT, which is based in Dharamsala, said the station had suffered a great deal from the disturbances and listeners had had trouble finding the new frequencies. He added that as a precaution, most people only listened to clandestine stations using headphones. Today VOT has a staff of eight journalists and broadcasts a 45-minute news programme, of which 15 minutes is in Chinese. Broadcasting on short wave, the station covers the north of India, Nepal and central Tibet.
Other stations broadcasting in Tibetan from abroad
The first radio station to broadcast programmes in Tibetan, in 1961, was All India Radio, which is run by the Indian government. It now does little more than put out official statements by the Delhi authorities and news of the Dalai Lama’s activities. Tibetan journalists say it has only a tiny audience in Tibet.
The Tibetan-language sections of VOA, started in March 1991, and Radio Free Asia (1996) have become known as reliable news sources for Tibetans inside the country. They have respected journalists such as Palden Gyal, Tinley Nyandak and Dorjee Tseten on their staff. VOA, which broadcasts a three-hour daily news programme, has correspondents in India, Nepal, Taiwan and Sikkim. The staff regularly pick up news reports from Tibetan refugees who have recently arrived in India, Nepal or Hong Kong.
VOA has been jammed by the Chinese since it first went on the air and the American government, which owns the station, has complained to the authorities in Beijing on several occasions. Chinese officials have always denied being behind the jamming. In 1997 a delegation of VOA technicians even went to China in an attempt to find a solution, but the discussions led nowhere and the jamming began again with a vengeance. One of the station managers said the Chinese were broadcasting the programmes of Radio Beijing, especially those in Spanish, on the same frequency as VOA. The technicians also noticed noises such as “the sound of planes and washing machines”.
Because of the jamming, but also because of the geographical location of Tibet, radio stations broadcasting on short wave from abroad have to switch frequencies regularly. One VOA executive said the changes were essential to ensure that listeners could “at least hear one programme a week in good conditions”.
The Chinese are extremely sensitive to the impact of “foreign radio stations” broadcasting in Tibetan. In 1996, a privately run Cambodian station was jammed (the Cambodian language sounds similar to Tibetan).
The press in exile
After 1959 many Tibetan journalists and intellectuals followed the religious and political authorities into exile, most of them to India and Nepal. About ten Tibetan journalists living in Dharamsala are bringing out newspapers in Tibetan for the community in exile: some 130,000 people, according to Indian government figures. They say they are unable to send large quantities of their publications to Tibet. According to Gedun Rabsal, editor of the Tibet Times, it is too dangerous for a Tibetan to cross the border with copies of his quarterly. Nonetheless, western tourists who are sympathetic to the Tibetan cause sometimes agree to take banned publications to Tibet and distribute them there.
Pema Thinley, now editor of Tibetan Review, the first English-language magazine devoted to Tibet, also chose the path of exile. The monthly, started in 1968 and now with a circulation of 3,000, is sent to about ten civil servants and academics in Tibet. Pema Thinley cannot be certain that they arrive safely, because he says that mail from India is systematically opened.
Among the dozens of publications produced by Tibetans in exile, only a few are run by professional journalists. Most of them are newsletters put together by political groups or organisations, or cultural and literary magazines, such as Norde, a monthly whose editor, Hortsang Jigme, is a well-known author as well as a member of the Tibetan parliament in exile.
One of the first independent newspapers launched in exile was the fortnightly Mangtso (Democracy), published by the Amnye Machen Institute, a centre for research into Tibetan society and culture, based in Dharamsala, from 1993 to 1996. With a circulation of 5,000, 3,000 of which are sold on subscription, Mangtso only managed to send about 100 copies to Tibet, mainly with the help of foreign tourists. The staff said Mangtso handled Tibetan and international news “in an independent manner”, which led to some criticism from religious circles. For the first time, a Tibetan publication included readers’ letters, a horoscope and cartoons. But, according to one of the former editors, Tibetan society was not ready to accept “modern, critical journalism”. That was why the religious authorities were quick to put pressure on the newspaper when it published a photograph of the Panchen Lama alongside a story about the Japanese sect Aum, which has been responsible for terrorist acts, on its front page. It was Mangtso’s way of recalling that the Dalai Lama has met the sect’s guru on several occasions. A few months later the editorial team decided to throw in the towel, preferring to devote their time to “researching Tibetan culture, which is threatened with disappearance”.
To fill the void left by the disappearance of Mangtso, a group of journalists and intellectuals decided to launch Tibet Times (Bod-kyi-dus-bab) in 1996. The quarterly, with a circulation of 3,500, is published in Tibetan, at Dharamsala. Read mainly by the Tibetan community in India, it soon made a name for itself as one of the most credible sources of news about Tibet. At the moment only about 100 copies are sent to Tibet and most of those go to universities, said editor Gedun Rabsal, although refugees who have recently arrived in India have confirmed his suspicions that it is being photocopied and covertly distributed in Lhasa.
Other publications, like the fortnightlies Cholka Sum (The Three Provinces) and Nyenchen Thanglha (Holy Mountain), published in Katmandu, Nepal, are also sold to the community in exile. The Tibetan government in exile publishes the weekly Tibetan Bulletin (in English, French, Hindi and Chinese), which deals mainly with the work of the Dharamsala-based government and the leading lamas.
In the past few months, the vast majority of these newspapers have also published online editions. Gedun Rabsal said the spread of the Internet had made it possible to improve distribution to the Tibetan community in exile. He also saw it as a possible opening to Tibetans inside the country, as in recent years cybercafés have sprung up in Lhasa. Although the Internet is still strictly controlled by the authorities, it could still be a promising opportunity for newspapers in exile, Rabsal added.
Recommendations
Reporters Sans Frontières calls on the Chinese government to:
a) ratify the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, Article 19 of which guarantees press freedom;
b) allow independent newspapers to be published;
c) stop jamming radio stations such as Voice of Tibet and Voice of America;
d) give the various political and religious groups in Tibet fair access to public radio and television; and
e) allow foreign journalists to work freely in Tibet.
Reporters Sans Frontières calls on member states of the European Union to:
a) put forward a resolution to the next meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, condemning China for serious violations of press freedom in Tibet; and
b) support independent Tibetan print and broadcast media.
