Wen Jiabao - NZ Herald, 08/04/2006

On Saturday, a friend pointed me to the New Zealand Herald's interview with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao: When the Premier of the world's most populous nation came calling this week, he gave his only one-on-one interview to the Herald. So why did the Herald waste this precious opportunity to conduct an important critical analysis of human rights violations? The Chinese Government's abuse of human rights has affected thousands of ex-Chinese residents now residing in New Zealand (not just Falun Gong). A Nine to Noon interview just last week featured a New Zealand citizen who was tortured by the authorities in China. One would think that torture and general rights violations of not just former Chinese citizens, but current New Zealand citizens, would surely incite New Zealand's largest newspaper to use its monopoly on Wen's time to make an issue of this abuse. But the word rights didn't feature at all in the article. And the word human was mentioned only in the context of 'human resources'. The Herald piece rivalled John Campbell's most gushing of all interviews. But why? Perhap conditions were attached to the interview. But that excuse doesn't wash, because the piece itself isn't actually published in interview style. It's an article about the interview. The writer could have easily inserted a paragraph on the issue of human rights; that they were a problem; why they weren't addressed during the interview. But there was nothing. Nothing at all. The only logical reason behind this vaccum, seems to be that the Herald wouldn't like to damped its chances for another interview with Chinese officials in the future. But that's hardly a good reason to print an uncritical article on an authoritarian dictatorship, which has directly affected the lives of many New Zealanders.