Recently in Freedom of Press Category

By Associated Press | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
March 11, 2010

China will toughen requirements for reporters by launching a new certification system that includes training in Marxist and communist theories of news, a media official said, citing problems with the current crop of mainland journalists.

The South China Morning Post reported Thursday that Li Dongdong, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, said some reporters were giving Chinese journalism a bad name because they hadn't been properly trained. She didn't give any specific examples.

Similar comments by Li were posted on the Web site of the official Xinhua News Agency.

Li told Xinhua on Monday that the new qualification system would ensure all journalists learn socialist and Marxist theories of journalism and media ethics.

"Comrades who are going to be working on journalism's front lines must learn theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics and be taught Marx's view on news, plus media ethics and Communist Party discipline on news and propaganda," Li was quoted as saying.

Communist theories of journalism say media should serve the communist leadership and not undermine its initiatives. Many democracies embrace a model where reporters serve a watchdog role independent of the government.

Chinese media have become more freewheeling since newspapers and broadcasters began relying increasingly on advertising instead of just Communist Party patronage for their survival. There have been problems with reporters demanding payment for positive news coverage or to bury a story, and instances of reporters fabricating news.

Others have run afoul of the government for reporting accurately on stories that officials didn't want publicized. Government censors keep a tight grip on news content and routinely ban reporting on issues deemed too politically sensitive or destabilizing.

A senior editor with the Beijing-based Economic Observer said this week he had been punished for co-authoring an editorial that urged the government to scrap an unpopular household registration system, saying it discriminated against the poor.

>> Original Source

By Radio Free Asia
March 08, 2010

China's premier promises a more open society, but his speech to parliament meets with skepticism.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has called for greater oversight of government by ordinary citizens and media, but analysts and netizens have voiced skepticism that real change is on the way.

During his annual work report to the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing on Friday, Wen called on China's leadership to create an environment in which it is possible for people to criticize and supervise the government.

"We must create the conditions under which people are allowed to criticize the government, to supervise the government," Wen told delegates to the country's parliament.

"At the same time, we must bring out the ability of the media to exercise a supervisory role, so that power is exercised in broad daylight."

As he spoke, Beijing police held the capital under a tight security clampdown, ensuring that anyone with a grievance against the government was kept well away from the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square.

Netizens joked online that Wen's promises sounded like the self-development promises made by primary school children in China: "These things are only ever a goal," one quipped.

Wen called on members of the ruling Communist Party to be scrupulous over their use of public money, following a number of high-profile online exposes of the lifestyles of high-ranking officials.

Call for official discipline

"All of the leadership, especially high-ranking officials, must resolutely implement guidelines delivered by central government regarding personal finances and property of the individual," said Wen.

"This includes their income, housing, investments, and the careers taken up by their spouses, sons, and daughters."

Wen also promised to strengthen channels for consultation with Chinese citizens, who should be given the opportunity to oversee the government's activities.

China's army of petitioners say they have repeatedly been stonewalled, detained in "black jails," beaten, and harrassed by the authorities if they try to take a complaint against local government actions to a higher level of government.

"Does central government have any measures to ensure that people who report local officials online aren't hounded and detained, or pursued by local mafia?" wrote one petitioner from the eastern city of Ningbo.

Press freedom lacking

Another wrote from Chengdu that the government should first guarantee the media's right to carry out normal reporting and newsgathering activities.

"Officials involved in a situation have the responsibility to answer questions from journalists. Those who refuse to do so should be subjected to harsh punishment: at the very least a demotion or a pay cut for failing to carry out administrative orders."

But Hong Kong media reports said Chinese media have already been forbidden to report on any negative news from Beijing during the annual parliamentary sessions.

According to the Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper, petitions from retired members of the People's Liberation Army, from workers in certain industries, and from evictees in Beijing are forbidden topics.

And the difficulties faced by migrant workers in getting schooling for their children in Beijing were also struck off the list of permissible news items for traditional media and online news providers.

Beijing University economics professor Xia Yeliang said that Wen's promises of greater academic freedom in China's universities have also been heard before, and remain undelivered.

Twitter police

"They have been talking about reforming China's education system for many years now," Xia said.

"Now, they are saying once again that they want to turn the universities into top-flight universities [with no Party presence and academic freedom], but they haven't said when they will achieve this by."

One Beijing-based blogger, known online by the nickname Zhang Shuji, said China's Internet police regularly patrol micro-blogging services like Twitter.

"They won't necessarily take part in the discussion. They just keep a record," he said.

"It's a bit like using [the popular chat service] QQ. The Web police just make a back-up copy of all the chats. Then, if they get a subpoena, they just print it off for evidence that the person concerned was expressing opinions tantamount to incitement."

China had more than 40,000 active Twitter users as of last week, with more than 200,000 people registered on the service. More than half of Twitter's most-followed users are civil rights and pro-democracy activists from China.

Editors cautioned

An official report at the end of last year identified microblogging as one of the most powerful drivers of public opinion in China.

Sina's home-based microblogging service employs a team of more than 300 people, not just to monitor what is being posted, but to set up blocks and filters.

One of the coordinators of the community Internet blog Kenengba, A Chan, wrote: "Sina's microblogging service used to take down my posts without notifying me. Later on, they started watching everything I wrote, but they still didn't notify me."

In recent days, editors from 13 different regional state-run newspapers have been handed official warnings after they published a joint editorial calling for an end to the household registration, or hukou, system, which they said discriminates against rural residents who move to large cities to work.

Wen pledged in his speech to abolish some restrictions on migrant workers in smaller towns and cities, but stopped short of abolishing the hukou system, saying the authorities will take a "step-by-step"
approach.

Beijing University's Xia said the same pledge has already been heard from China's leaders.

"We have heard them say this many times now, over many years, to win a bit of applause in the moment, and nothing has come of it so far," Xia said. "If they really could do what they are saying, there wouldn't be so much discontent among ordinary Chinese people."

"Right now there is a huge gap between what the government says it's going to do, and what it actually does," he said.

Original reporting in Mandarin by Xin Yu and Qiao Long, and in Cantonese by Hai Nan. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

>> Original Source

By REUTERS | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News

Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sugita Katya
February 03, 2010

China will never have its voice heard on the international stage unless the government loosens its tight grip over the media and film industry, the CEO of the country's No. 2 Internet portal said Wednesday.

Charles Zhang, the often outspoken chief executive of Sohu.com Inc, told a forum in Beijing that plans to create global Chinese media giants were doomed to fail if the government did not relax controls.

"Chinese newspapers and television stations completely lack meaningful competition, and have no independent personality ... so they have no authority or respect," Zhang said, according to a transcript of the speech posted on the company's website.

"If the Wall Street Journal or New York Times report something, the whole world pays attention, and believes it," he added. "China's right to speak in the world is totally lacking because it has no media organizations which can win respect."

China has tried to get its voice heard more globally mainly via the English-language channel CCTV-9, but has achieved little success despite pouring money into the venture.

The ruling Communist Party has prescribed a mix of commercial reforms and continued state control and censorship for the media and publishing sectors, while drawing a red line under issues directly challenging key policies.

China also wants to harness commercial forces to create media that can project Chinese ideas and values to a changing public and a wider world.

Zhang said these reforms risked creating media companies with no competitiveness, a "tiger's head with a snake's tail" -- a Chinese expression meaning to start well but end poorly.

>> Original Report

International Federation of Journalists
January 31, 2009

A new report by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on press freedom in China highlights the battle by local censors to control media commentary on a wide range of topics throughout in 2009. 

Banned topics range from events associated with social unrest and public protests against authorities, to reports of photos of an actress topless on a Caribbean beach.   

The report, China Clings to Control: Press Freedom in 2009, will be officially released by the IFJ at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong at 11am on January 31.  

It presents data gathered by IFJ media rights monitoring in China, detailing the intensifying efforts of authorities since early 2009 to control online content and commentary, and assessing the official restrictions and range of impediments faced by local and foreign media working in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.  

Amid the controversy over Google's recently stated refusal to censor the contents of its Chinese-language search engine, following allegations that China's authorities had authorised a cyber attack on Google's US-based systems, and gmail accounts held by activists in China had been breached, China Clings to Control: Press Freedom in 2009 presents the wider context of restrictions confronting journalists and media in China. 

In calling on China to investigate Google's allegations, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says US companies need to take a "principled stand" against censorship.  

"The IFJ fully endorses Mrs Clinton's comments," IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said. 

"We further call on the international community to take a principled stand to oppose all forms of restrictions on the rights of journalists to do their work in China, including the steady stream of official bans as well as new rules in 2009 which make it virtually impossible for local journalists who work in traditional or online media to receive the accreditation they need in order to conduct their profession." 

The IFJ report details 62 bans issued from January to November 2009, among hundreds of regulations issued by central and provincial authorities in the past year.  

Compiled with the assistance of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), the list below is not complete because of difficulties in obtaining information in China about instructions to the media.  

"The IFJ list indicates that much as China's censors are maintaining a vigilant eye, they are also struggling to maintain a grip on information dissemination," White said.

 >> Complete Report

By Sharon LaFraniere | The New York Times
January 19, 2010

As the Chinese government expands what it calls a campaign against pornography, cellular companies in Beijing and Shanghai have been told to suspend text services to cellphone users who are found to have sent messages with "illegal or unhealthy content," state-run news media reported Tuesday.

China Mobile, one of the nation's largest cellular providers, reported that text messages would automatically be scanned for "key words" provided by the police, according to China Daily, a state-controlled English-language newspaper. Messages will be deemed "unhealthy" if they violate undisclosed criteria established by the central government, the newspaper said.

The increased surveillance of text messages is the latest in a series of government efforts to severely tighten control of the Internet and other forms of communication.

Since late last year, China has closed hundreds of Web sites, including popular file-sharing sites, and limited its citizens' ability to set up personal Web sites.

>> Original Report