China Defends New Curbs on the Sale of Wire News

By Joseph Kahn | The New York Times
September 15, 2006

Chinese officials on Thursday promised that new rules restricting the sale of foreign wire service news would not affect press freedoms. But they also strongly defended efforts to control the distribution of financial and economic news inside the country.

The New China News Agency, China’s main government news agency, also known as Xinhua, issued regulations on Sunday that would make it the gatekeeper, and presumably also the revenue collector, for all kinds of reports from news agencies sold in China.

The regulations threaten to disrupt a business valued by major Western financial news providers, including Reuters and Bloomberg, at about $100 million a year. Most of the revenue comes from banks and brokerage houses that subscribe to Western news and data services to keep abreast of developments affecting stock, bond and currency markets. Very few news outlets in China subscribe directly to foreign wire services.

The news agency’s attempt to commandeer that business, a repeat of a failed effort it undertook in 1996, raised charges that it sought to use its regulatory authority to enhance its bottom line.

The United States, the European Union and the major players in the financial news and information business protested the agency’s announcement, prompting a vigorous and so far uncompromising defense from Chinese officials.

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