The Mekong media has strongly urged one of its partners, the China media to publish more stories about the circumstances of the upstream region of the Mekong River at a four-day long Mekong Media Forum held in Chiangmai, Thailand from December 9 to 12.
Media from the downstream countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand said the China media indeed need to inform of what is going to happen on the upper region to downstream countries and to report more about the government’s operation on dams.
In addition, they need to promote not only the Chinese government’s awareness but also the people’s in order to understand what the bad impacts might be for the people along the downstream areas if they continue to run mega projects on the river.
Most people see that the Chinese media do not report stories about what their government is planning on the river such as dam constructions.
Currently, China is planning to construct eight dams on the river; one of them would be the world’s tallest, at 292 m (958 feet). So far it has completed three dams: Manwan in 1993, Dachaoshan in 2002 and Jinghong in June 2008.
Due to the completed dam constructions, the lives of people downstream have been threatened and have also been causing low flow of water.
"Since the dams began being constructed, water levels have gone up and down," a participant from Cambodia said.
The Mekong region is comprised of China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Thailand countries along the Mekong, one of the famous and important rivers in the South-east Asia as millions people are relying on the river to survive.
“China must sympathize for people who rely on the river,” said another participant in the forum.
There were about over 200 participants in the forum including analysts, media professionals, experts and environmentalists.
“The Chinese media should be responsible to bring and produce more stories of people from downstream suffering from Chinese actions,” he said.
A senior journalist from China Daily said the China media are like the Burmese media, all are controlled by the government.
Many news agencies were banned by the government because of reporting about Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, according to him.
However he said, they will try their best to inform about what is going to happen in upstream regions and will also try to raise people’s awareness in the upstream regions as to how the people in the downstream countries are suffering from the government’s actions.
Another Chinese journalist commented even the media was not aware of what the downstream countries think of their country, not to mention the general public.
“If I did not come to the forum I would never have known that the downstream people are dissatisfied with us Chinese people,” she said.
Nguyen Ngoc Tran, Journalism Professor, University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Ch Minh City of Vietnam said dam constructions on the Mekong can create serious environmental problems and bad impacts to downstream countries.
According to the professor, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has also voiced his concerns with the dam constructions and initiated a study on downstream impacts.
