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EDITORIAL: No reason to trust Xinhua's 'facts'

As news from China becomes increasingly common fare for media outlets around the world, reports from Xinhua news agency -- whose head is a top Chinese Communist Party official -- and other state-run media firms are proliferating, often as the only source, with little or no concern as to the trustworthiness of the content.

Beijing's announcement that it has reduced the application of the death penalty by 10 percent this year was widely regarded as newsworthy. But some journalists said little or nothing about compelling reasons to doubt the report.

Although the UN has called on countries that implement the death penalty to make public the details of all capital punishment cases as well as annual statistics, China continues to treat executions as a state secret. In the vast majority of cases, China does not publicly announce that a punishment has been handed down, let alone say why. Occasional comments by high-level officials, however, indicate the number of cases each year amount to thousands more than those the government makes public.

Likewise, in the wake of a visit by the UN rapporteur on torture, whose report was hardly flattering,Xinhua countered with a report that authorities had launched an anti-torture campaign and would install cameras in police interrogation rooms to discourage forced confessions -- a story that was covered in Western media.

It should come as little surprise that Beijing, in the face of mounting international pressure from non-governmental organizations and governments, is reporting sweeping improvements. But Beijing has offered not one shred of evidence to back its claims. This, combined with its continued belligerence toward journalists and independent bodies seeking to verify these claims, are ample cause for skepticism.

Reporters Without Borders, whose chief, Robert Menard, visited Taipei last week, has found in interviews with Xinhua journalists that the agency has been tasked by the government with manufacturing three versions of reality in its daily work.

News deemed too sensitive for public consumption is earmarked for circulation to government officials, while the public may, at most, hear a modified version of such reports (for example, casting demonstrators in a bad light). Meanwhile, the non-Chinese speaking world is served up a third version, in which some events -- such as natural disasters and protests -- may be reported on more extensively than at home, apparently to create the illusion of openness in the Chinese media.

Xinhua reports that seem to portray China as openly facing issues of political dissent, social unrest and corruption seem increasingly common. In the past few months, state media have variously said officials are aware of and dealing with any number of illegal land seizures, unsafe factories, corrupt officials and cases of "mass incidents."

But the content of many Xinhua reports -- including subjects that should not be political, such as death tolls and evacuation numbers in natural disasters, or the spread of diseases -- are rendered meaningless in the absence of evidence and the freedom to double-check official figures.

China's manipulation of the media reveals a government as bent on secrecy as it is on appearing open. Until Xinhua has earned credibility -- which will require broad reforms in the state and party apparatuses -- international media have a responsibility to their readers to make it clear when there is cause to doubt the source of a piece of news or when figures cannot be independently confirmed.
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