SARS infects propaganda machine

CHINA is in the midst of a massive propaganda campaign reminiscent of the heady days of Maoism. All the government machinery is in overdrive in a heroic battle against a “cruel” and “ferocious” enemy – the SARS virus.

CHINA is in the midst of a massive propaganda campaign reminiscent of the heady days of Maoism. All the government machinery is in overdrive in a heroic battle against a “cruel” and “ferocious” enemy – the SARS virus.Rising tollSARS infections in Hong Kong have fallen but the death rate is skyrocketing. The death rate stands at 11 per cent – up from 5 per cent when the epidemic began. Nine more patients were reported dead yesterday, taking the death toll to 179. Concerns that the coronavirus that causes SARS can continue living in a patient for up to a month after recovery will be discussed with world health officials today.- Glenda KorporaalIn the past week, Beijing citizens have been subject to a relentless barrage of anti-SARS melodrama. Television features daily images of “white-coated warriors” bravely bidding farewell to their families as they head into the front line of the battle. Page after page, newspapers exhaust all imaginable story angles. The Beijing Times on Thursday prominently pictured a masked doctor with his fist in the air against a red background, in an imitation of the iconic propaganda posters of the 1940s and 50s. Another paper carried a photo wraparound of workers “from all walks of life” (the Communist Party’s favourite inclusive term) under the banner “Heaven Bless China”, which could also translate as “Heaven Help China”. Dead medical workers have been officially dubbed “revolutionary heroes”. Chief among them is Guangdong nurse Ye Xin, an “angel in white” who reportedly expended her last energies on a note warning colleagues to stay away from her to save themselves. She’s also won the posthumous title of “National Excellent Communist Party Member”. The fervent nationalistic appeal is a blatant attempt to win back public faith after the disastrous period from January to April when a cover-up allowed the virus to spread rapidly from its believed origins in southern Guangdong province. It has since infected more than 6000 people worldwide and killed more than 400, most of them in China. But truth is ever a casualty of war. A People’s Daily editorial for Labour Day on May 1 said the party “reacted quickly, took decisive measures and led the masses to carry out SARS prevention and control struggles”. The central Ministry of Propaganda issued a notice on April 26 directing all media to “create a good atmosphere for the anti-SARS campaign”. Outlets were told to “stick to unification, stability and encouragement, focus on positive propaganda”, and “lead the people’s thinking into harmony with the decision of the party”. Once the Government had come clean on SARS at a watershed televised press conference on April 20, when the sacrificial sacking of the health minister and the Beijing mayor were revealed, publicity on SARS went from a drought to a deluge. Part of the aim apparently has been to scare people into accepting drastic measures, including mass quarantines, movement restrictions, business closures and commandeering of private property. Words such as “catastrophe”, “disaster” and “calamity” have been headlined. But, as Orville Schell, China specialist and dean of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, points out, the trouble with shifting from information drought to deluge is that it “creates a sense of distrust and suspicion about the balance and veracity of the information”. It’s too early to say whether the SARS debacle will lead to greater government candour and media freedom longer-term. It’s a breakthrough, for example, for the Chinese public to see live SARS press conferences including sharp questions from foreign journalists, rather than just the usual carefully edited pre-arranged queries from state media. But the authorities may learn a different lesson altogether. SARS has exposed China’s official efforts to manipulate the truth in a crisis as unsubtle and ham-fisted. Given the negative local and international reaction, what if the Chinese information czars decided to get really good at the subtle art of Western-style spin doctoring? That could be frightening.(Source: The Australian, Catherine Armitage, May 05, 2003)