KEY POINTS:
In October last year, in front of journalists from 20 countries, I stood up for New Zealand as being a bastion of democracy and press freedom.
We were in Taiwan to cover its national day celebrations, and because of Taiwan's precarious relationship with China, democracy and freedom of
the press were the two most talked-about topics during our week's stay.
At one function I was asked to compare the difference between working as a journalist in Singapore and New Zealand.
I related how, as a junior reporter in Singapore in the 80s, a seemingly harmless story I covered landed me in a Singapore Government minister's office.
The Government had wanted to use logos to differentiate public housing estates, and one town council had chosen the rising sun symbol. This caused an uproar among residents, who said it reminded them of the Japanese occupation.
A harmless story, I thought. But I was so very wrong. It was then near Singapore's general election and that particular electorate was a closely contested one where the ruling PAP party stood to lose five parliamentary seats.
The day the story ran, I was summoned to the office of the Singapore Education Minister and given a stern warning not to create any more havoc with my reporting.
At last year's function - citing the world ranking for press freedom by Reporters Without Borders, where New Zealand was consistently in the top 20 while Singapore ranked a lowly 146 out of 168 countries - I told the other journalists that New Zealand was where a journalist could freely practise journalism as it should be, reporting without fear or favour.
However, in the light of the fiasco at the Beehive last week involving Wellington-based journalist Nick Wang, I am beginning to wonder if this is still the case.
Wang, the editor of an Asian newspaper, and his cameraman were stopped by police from documenting a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen and the Chinese Vice-Premier, Zeng Peiyan.
The police had acted on the request of a Chinese official who had tipped them off that Wang had been a member of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement persecuted in China.
So it did not matter that Wang was an accredited member of the press gallery, which would have meant he could access parliament buildings, or that the photo opportunity had been listed in the advisory note to the media. The police just did not want the Chinese offended.
The case could have just been between an overzealous Chinese civil servant and an inexperienced diplomatic protection squad officer had it not been for Cullen jumping to the defence of the police action and of his Chinese counterpart.
Cullen said Wang was removed because he was creating a disturbance, but video showed that nothing of that sort happened.
From whatever angle you look at it, the case was badly handled.
The incident prompted some senior members of the press gallery to seek assurances from the Speaker of Parliament that they, too, would not be impeded from doing their work around Parliament in the future.
For the police, this is another blow to their image following the sex scandals.
In the Wang incident they will be seen as an organisation that is unable to rise above politics or operate independently.
New Zealand's reputation for upholding democracy and freedom of speech was also dealt a blow with Cullen's defence of the police actions and unjustified claims that Wang had caused a disturbance.
But the biggest blow must be suffered by the Chinese. This incident reinforces the impression many people have of China as a being country with a poor human rights record and no freedom of speech - at a time when Beijing is obsessed with improving its world image, with the Olympics just around the corner.
One Chinese official's attempt - by barring Wang - to avoid any negative news backfired. In fact it did the reverse and created a barrage of negative news. Reporters turned their attention away from the signing of the agreements and focused on the silencing of Wang.
Surely China must realise by now that keeping its head in the sand, and expecting everyone who wants to be its friend to do the same, will in no way improve its international image.
Even without Wang's reporting, there is enough information out there to show that China is not a perfect country and would win more friends by not pretending that it is perfect.
There is so much more for China to open up. It could highlight and explain the complexities of the problems it faces as the world's most populous nation, and what the Government is doing about it.
A true friend would help steer China towards doing this, rather than do a Cullen and defend efforts to push its head further into the sand.
