ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST:
The death toll from the Nepal-China floods has now surpassed 1,400 people, and more than 5,000 are still missing. That's according to authorities in both countries. The floods swept through a Himalayan valley on August 26, washing away communities in both Nepal and China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Reporting the full story from a disaster zone that hit two countries with very different approaches to media access has been challenging.
JENNIFER PAK, BYLINE: In Nepal, international journalists move freely. Contrast that to Tibet - we were wholly reliant on Chinese media.
NADWORNY: That's NPR China correspondent Jennifer Pak. For this week's Reporter's Notebook, we asked Jennifer what it's like to cover the floods from within China. I began by asking her why China made it so hard for the press to access the disaster zone.
PAK: They want control over the narrative. That's all it is. It's not even Chinese media only that are allowed to be on scene. It's specifically premium state-run media. So Xinhua News Agency, China Central TV, so CCTV - they are the ones allowed on the ground. A lot of the reporting was overwhelmingly focused on the rescue effort, the logistics and, more importantly, what the response has been from the leadership, which is that they really cared about this and they were reacting quickly.
NADWORNY: So considering all these restrictions, I mean, how do you even begin to go about reporting a story like this for an American audience?
PAK: We try to show everything because for this particular disaster, because we were limited mainly to Chinese state media, I had to indicate why. And I said that in all of the stories that we were using, and I had to explain why. By the way, Tibet did let in eight foreign media outlets eventually, well over a week in, but NPR was not selected among them. So we also have to add that in sometimes - right? - that it was a highly-controlled visit, and we had, you know, over a dozen international media outlets that had asked for permission. So we have to lay out the ground to show the work, if you will. That's the way that we can gain trust with our audience, essentially, but oftentimes it's difficult 'cause it's just so hard to get people to talk to the foreign media and on top of that, American media.
NADWORNY: And you're also living there, doing your job beyond just this story. I'm wondering how you navigate your relationship with Chinese officials and kind of, like, where you're not pulling punches, but you're also trying to get the best access. Like, you're fighting for access to report things.
PAK: Within the last two, three years, I have not been in the same room with any official, low level or not, when they've been by themselves. They have to come in pairs. At one point in time, one of them put a phone between the two of us, and at some point he lifted it. I could see he was recording the conversation. Which I'm fine with because there was nothing shady. There was nothing to hide at all. I mean, oftentimes, it's more about explaining our role as the media because it's so different from how the Chinese media operate. You know, oftentimes they could get a directive, and they will just follow it. They'll run exactly that.
But, you know, for the foreign media, I think that's the nervousness. It's not so much they think we're always going to be out to get them. It's more that they don't have control. And so that's always this fear. They might not like who we talk to, but then we'll have to explain. Look, we are the eyes and ears of our audience on the ground for Americans, and they're getting open, free access to information back home. If we don't address this point, we don't talk to these people, then we might get accused of trying to hide something, and it doesn't make sense, you know? So we have to - this is a continual part of the job is trying to explain to them how the media works in America and why it is to their benefit. You know, we always try to offer them a right of reply. To - we ask them, is there somebody that you could front up? And unfortunately, that pool of people we can go to to even represent China's point of view, the official point of view is getting smaller and smaller.
NADWORNY: And is there fear of even that small pool that they'll, like, say something that will get them in trouble, even on the personal level?
PAK: It's interesting because, of course, there's no overriding directive. There's a lot of opaqueness, but everybody who lives in this society kind of takes cues and signals, OK? And so part of the issue and the biggest problem that I face being on the ground, and that's been true all along, but even more so now is, self-censorship, OK? We're trying to convince people to talk to us, to tell us their stories, and a lot of times, they are a bit skeptical or suspicious, maybe they're not as media savvy, but also, they're just worried. So here's a young man we were trying to interview. I'm not going to identify him because he could be targeted by officials. Here he is telling us why he's wary of speaking to us in particular but also the foreign media in general.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
PAK: He says, "you might live in constant fear and anxiety, never really knowing when you've made an inadvertent remark, which could get you in trouble. You don't know where the boundaries lie, nor can we predict if and when our turn might come," meaning the authorities coming to get them. He said if this was China back in the early 2000s, he would have gladly talked to us. But today, given the strong emphasis on loyalty to the Communist Party, one has to be extremely cautious about what is said. So sometimes I would have to explain to them, especially our policy, which is that we try not to give anonymity unless it is absolutely necessary. And if we do - if we do not give the full name, we have to explain why. We need our audience to understand what we're doing because otherwise, we could get accused of being fake media that we just chose some random person.
NADWORNY: But it's not you that's kind of under pressure, it's everyone in the ecosystem of doing your job. I want to turn now to your next big story. President Xi Jinping planned a state visit to Washington coming later this month. What are your priorities for you and your editors? What are you thinking about ahead of the visit?
PAK: Well, I always have to think in terms of advantages and the fact that NPR has me on the ground. You know, increasingly, there are fewer foreign media outlets with journalists on the ground because of the visa restrictions. So I often try to reflect voices that are on the ground that you might not get easily in the U.S. That includes even officials. So instead of just saying, you know, Chinese officials deny this, you know, when it came to the National People's Congress, this important political meeting every year, we gave a lot more room to summarize what exactly the foreign minister had said. We talked about top five points, for example. You know, we're trying to reflect this growing superpower and what they think, what they see, because there is an interest, I believe. And so we are trying to make sure that our audience in America can hear more of it and, of course, diverse opinions, so that they don't see China as a monolith, right? Or, of course, we do the basics, which is that we have to talk about what's been happening between the U.S. and China relationship since Trump last visited here in Beijing in May in terms of geopolitics, security, AI and trade.
NADWORNY: Well, we look forward to your reporting, Jennifer. Thank you so much for giving us this peek behind the scenes.
PAK: No problem.
NADWORNY: That was Jennifer Pak, NPR's international correspondent based in Beijing.
Thank you.
PAK: Thanks for having me.
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