Deutsche Welle still cherishes the legacy of Cold War Mentality
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Germany should have long forgone the Cold War mentality and been free from such censorship. But some German media nowadays still cling to the Cold War mentality. As a media source of a democratic country that attaches great value to freedom of speech and journalistic freedom, Deutsche Welle dismissed Zhang Danhong for her factual and positive remarks on China's development prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. And now, four more Chinese staff have been laid off due to their objections to the company's journalistic censorship. People cannot help but wonder how much further such a news organization can go on its anti-China path.
Now four more overseas Chinese staff members working for China-Redaktion der Deutsche Welle have been denied the opportunity to renew their contract with Deutsche Welle for what they say are political reasons.
In the open letter, they said----
“Deutsche Welle has exercised censorship on employees’ thoughts since the outbreak of the “Media War on China” in 2008. All the editors working with China-Redaktion der Deutsche Welle fell victims of suspicion and were monitored or sidelined as a result. Moreover it has adjusted the criteria for coverage about China, giving political and ideological factors more prominent roles. Based on this, it reviewed articles on a regular base to decide whether the articles were “pro communist” or not and if they were eligible for publishing.
We worked with China-Redaktion der Deutsche Welle for many years. At the end of 2010, two of us left Deutsche Welle as it refused to extend the employment contracts with them. For the same reason, the other two left shortly after. Since January 2011, Deutsche Welle significantly reduced cooperation with another one of us, a freelancer.
Deutsche Welle attributed the reason for not extending employment contracts with us to budget cut, which was soon proved to be fabricated. Later on, Deutsche Welle gave other reasons. Subsequently, a group of young and inexperienced new recruits filled the vacancies we left.
We believe their reasons cannot justify our dismissal, instead, we are the victims of the aftermath of the so-called “Media War on China" that broke out before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.”
What matters more about the incident is not whether the four DW editors of the Chinese origin were denied the opportunity to extend their labor contract with DW for the reasons they have claimed, but the China-Redaktion der Deutsche Welle has certainly given the impression that its reporting of China in recent years has been ideologically oriented, instead of acting on the principles of journalism.
If a news organization turns away from its obligation to the truth, but chooses to twist facts based on ideological differences, their coverage would turn out to be awfully absurd.
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