This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Barnett, R. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Ethics in China's wild west

the modern Tibetan studies programme at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia University, New York City

Exposing human rights abuse in "closed countries" is a vital journalistic role - but are local people who help being put at unacceptable risk? asks American academic Barnett. "The basic danger faced by informants in serious cases is clear," he writes. "Imprisonment. In a famous case in November of last year, for example, in Lithang, a Tibetan area of Sichuan, three Tibetan nomads - Adruk Lopo, Jamyang Kunkyen and Lothok - were sentenced to ten, nine and three years in jail respectively for trying to send photographs or information about a small protest to 'foreign organisations', probably news agencies or Tibetan language broadcasters in the U.S. And, "...there are still those [journalists] who will place local informants at significant risk in order to get interviews or access to closed areas. The dubious history of closed country journalism poses deep questions about journalistic methods"

British Journalism Review, Vol. 19, No. 3, 49-56 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0956474808097350


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?