In a journalist's eyes, the press officer is a person that he has to pester to drag information out of, while for a press officer, he is afraid to speak too much to a journalist for fear his comments or views will be made into a fanfare.

But are those views true?

"Press officers and journalists are like two hedgehogs, who may prick each other if they get too close," said Bai Yansong, a famous anchorman of China's central television station, at a spokesperson training course.

But Wang Jinsong, deputy director of the press office of the General Administration of Customs, has his own interpretation of being a press officer. "What a press officer does is to contact functional departments and gather information according to press requirements and arrange interviews to answer questions from the press."

Compared to spokespersons who are often in the spotlight, press officers are often behind the scenes, acting as a bridge between the media and the government.

"The era of controlling public opinion being harder than controlling floods has gone for ever," said Yan Caiping, an official with the National Social Security Fund. "The modern government should be transparent and open and China's spokesperson system is working to build such a government."

As a part of China's political reform, the spokesperson system has begun to be adopted by many government departments, with a lot more press officers receiving training courses on how to facilitate communication between the government and the public through media.

"A good press officer should be friendly and easy-going. Moreover, he or she has to understand how to present news before cooperating with journalists to achieve a win-win situation," said Wang Lin, deputy director of the press office of the Supreme People's Court.

"I'm not afraid of sharp questions from capable journalists, even if they are hedgehogs," she smiled, "as long as they have a work ethic to be responsible for what they report."

Still, although they have learnt to improve their work with training, some press officers are complaining they are in a dilemma in reality.

According to Wang Zhihu's personal experience as a press officer with the Ministry of Commerce, other functional departments often complain that the office adds much pressure to them to answer the media's questions and even sometimes refuse to cooperate.

"We understand that they don't have much time for one journalist after another, who might have the same questions. But if we cannot get answers, journalists will grumble that we are bureaucratic and slow."

Zhao Qizheng, director of the Information Office of the State Council, said it was an imperative task to build and improve a spokesperson system according to characteristics of different government departments and different regions.

Ministries like the Ministry of Land and Resources and local governments in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have published regulations on information release, which would greatly help press officers in future work, he said.
 
(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2004)