How China's Censoring Coverage Of The Tibet Flood Disaster

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This makes it difficult, if not impossible, for foreign media to independently verify the Chinese government's account of what happened there. The absence of independent reporting, combined with the removal of footage from social media, has allowed the Chinese state media to dominate the narrative.

How Chinese media are covering the disaster

This reflects a longstanding tendency in Chinese media to avoid material that could cause social instability or public panic.

Coverage of the Tibet floods by the state-controlled media has focused heavily on the People's Liberation Army rescue operations, President Xi Jinping's leadership during the crisis and Premier Li Qiang's visit to the disaster zone.

There has also been some coverage of efforts to reopen roads and the delivery of disaster-relief supplies to affected residents.

But as the Guardian has noted, there has been much less reporting about how the disaster has affected local villagers, their homes and communities.

On the Nepali side of the border, meanwhile, foreign journalists have been able to interview survivors without restrictions.

Critics also say the Chinese government is hiding the true number of casualties. The problem with these contested claims is that no outsiders – whether they be critics or not – have been able to verify the death toll due to the restricted access to the disaster site.

How openness was briefly tolerated

China's media environment has, at times, been less controlled than it is today.

On May 12 2008, an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale struck Sichuan province, killing more than 70,000 people and leaving millions homeless.

Chinese state media provided extensive live coverage almost as soon as the quake struck. This continued for weeks, with China Central Television regularly updating the death toll and reporting extensively on rescue efforts.

Foreign media did raise questions about whether lives had been unnecessarily lost due to the collapse of poorly constructed school buildings. Foreign journalists also questioned whether justice would be served for the families of the victims.

Chinese media reported on some of these controversies, including questioning whether the local government had done the proper quality control checks on school construction.

At the beginning, the coverage represented a major breakthrough in Chinese media reporting of emergencies and natural disasters. Its“unprecedented openness” was widely observed by Western media.

But within weeks, the government had begun to clamp down on information about the schools for fear the issue could drive anti-government sentiment.

Only positive news

As a general practice, China's state media outlets are instructed to emphasize“positive reporting” during times of crisis, while censors remove criticisms of government responses or culpability online.

The media coverage of a fatal train accident in the city of Wenzhou in 2011 was a good example.

Research shows that, unlike the Sichuan earthquake, the government kept a tight control on what was permissible in the media. The authorities ordered media outlets not to send reporters to the scene, limited the frequency of their reporting, and instructed them not to link the story to high-speed rail development.