Radio Silence

Over at the International Center for Journalists, readers are being asked how journalists should go about covering broader issues in China during the Olympics' period.

Amidst violence and concerns over failed pollution and human rights promises, the eve of the Olympics is increasingly being spent scrutinizing Chinese policies rather than athletes' medal hopes.

How should these issues be covered once the Games get underway Friday? And what, if anything, can come of this reporting in terms of long-term impacts?

It is that long-term impact question that may prove the most difficult to answer-- at least for anyone who right now is pushing for reporters to dig deep into human rights abuses, heavy pollution and restricted freedoms.

Late last year I was in Uganda when the collection of former British colonies held their Commonwealth meetings (known as 'CHOGM') in Kampala. There was much talk of what impact scores of foreign journalists flooding into the country would have on reporting human rights' abuses, poverty, the effects of conflict, etc.

Also of great debate was the decision to spend millions of dollars sprucing up Kampala at the expense of basic services. For example, the government canceled efforts to expand the country's rural electricity network to some of the 97% of rural Ugandans without electricity.

In the end, there were a few stories exploring these issues. But many of the foreign journalists I spoke with were stuck on other issues-- were any protesters beaten at the rally? why are there so many soldiers with guns in the street?-- that, while important, comparably have no long-term impact on the country and its people.

Several journalists commented on the soldiers-with-guns-in-the-streets issue. They were amazed by it and saw it as a sign of a repressive government. Perhaps.

But what seems remarkable in Europe and North America, is commonplace elsewhere. And when an 'elsewhere' country falls under the western media spotlight for an intense, short period of time (like Chogm, like Olympics), these kinds of issues won't be changed.

Rather, these journalists would have a greater impact focusing on issues that may benefit from that spotlight.

In Uganda, many in the local media hoped the visiting journalists would examine the issue of hundreds of thousands of refugees trying to start their lives following 20 years of conflict in Northern Uganda. Few did.

They also hoped to see an accounting of the millions spent on hosting the conference, and asking whether sacrificing so many basic services was worth it for a country with such limited resources.

Those issues received scant attention. In large part, because journalists visiting a country for the first time, and even then only for a few days, do not have the time or resources to properly explore those issues.

So what are we left with? A great deal of talk about how the world descending on the doorstep of a developing country will lead to scrutiny and a better life for the country's residents. But in the end, the legacy may be little more than re-paved roads, new buildings and a jaded population who sacrificed for unfulfilled promises.