Internet: February 2010 Archives

By David Pierson - Los Angeles Times
February 24, 2010

Applicants will have to verify their identities with regulators and have their photographs taken. A government ministry will review the requests.

In a move that will give the government new powers to police the Internet, China will require individuals seeking to establish personal websites to verify their identities with regulators and have their photographs taken.

The order lifts a ban on registering personal sites that was issued in December as part of a campaign to crack down on Internet pornography.

To apply, an individual must visit his or her local Internet service provider's office, submit an identification card and pose for a photograph. Applications will then be sent to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for review.

The new requirements add another layer of oversight in a country that is already deeply criticized for having some of the world's strictest Internet controls. Regulators have also discussed requiring stricter identity verification to purchase mobile phones and leave comments online.

Google Inc. threatened to quit China last month partly because it was fed up with having to censor its Chinese search engine.

Officials say the new rule is needed to stifle Internet porn.

"Internet security needs to be cured from its roots," Li Yizhong, head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, was quoted as saying in a state news article Sunday.

Critics say the new requirement has little to do with pornography and instead serves to increase controls and discourage web users from engaging in any activity that challenged the government.

For all its complexity, experts say the key to the government's controls is not its filtering technology or registration requirements, but the willingness of individuals to censor themselves.

"This new measure comes as no surprise, since a key element of control has always been about how to use disciplinary punishment and surveillance to create a self-censorship environment," said Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at UC Berkeley. "The government feels increasingly insecure with their ability to control the Internet, therefore more and more policies and controlling practices are aimed at enhancing a self-policing environment."

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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