The PRC government's Xinhua News Agency issued new regulations governing the distribution of news by international agencies Sept. 10, further restricting access to the tightly regulated Chinese media market.
As the state news agency under the Information Office of the State Council, Xinhua is the government regulatory body for news distribution and the principal commercial outlet for news stories to the domestic market. As a commercial entity, it is also the prime competitor to foreign media providers for the distribution of news and financial information within China.
According to the new rules, any social, economic or political news that "disrupts China's economic and social order or undermines China's social stability" or its "national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity" will be banned.
Taking effect immediately, the new rules give Xinhua wider powers to compel foreign media to distribute their news, photos and other information services solely through Xinhua or entities authorized by Xinhua. These powers include the authority to revoke the license of any foreign news agency charged with distributing such banned content. The rules also prohibit foreign news agencies from directly soliciting local customers for their news and information services in China including the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau, although this point was subquently relaxed Dec. 1, albeit "temporarily."
In effect, the new regulations ensure that Xinhua maintains its controlling role as government media censor over foreign news distribution while collecting revenues for regulating such distribution.
Although the Chinese government no longer regards death tolls from natural disasters as state secrets, it continues to harass and detain local journalists investigating stories of human rights abuses, social or ethnic unrest, profiteering or pollution. Investigators and researchers have been charged with disclosing state secrets or even espionage. According to a December 2005 report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, China, with 32 jailed reporters, had more journalists in prison than any country worldwide for the seventh year running.
In August, Chinese researcher Zhao Yan, who had worked for the New York Times and been charged with illegally divulging state secrets to foreigners, was jailed for three years. His conviction was upheld Dec. 1. In September, Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong-based China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times, was sentenced to five years for allegedly providing information to a Taiwan-based foundation. Both were charged with procuring state secrets, although the Chinese government tends to consider anything that could reflect badly on the government or party as a state secret.
The rules particularly seek to bar international financial information companies, such as Reuters, Bloomberg and Dow Jones, from selling news services directly to Chinese banking and brokerage clients. Critics suspect the rules are an attempt by Xinhua to break into the financial data market.
The European Union has criticized the new censorship rules as a "very negative development," while Reporters Without Borders has called the rules "a step backward." Media NGOs have called upon the United States, European, and Japanese governments to jointly condemn this "new curb on the free flow of information."
In the face of international concern, Xinhua reiterated that the new foreign media regulations were simply an extension of the supervision powers originally granted to the state news agency in 1996. Its official response stated "the measures are aimed at protecting the legitimate rights of foreign news agencies in China and ensure the smooth circulation of financial and economic information." It also denied there was a profit motive.
When questioned on the media restrictions during his visit to Britain, Premier Wen Jiabao promised that the Chinese government would "ensure the freedom and rights of the foreign news media and foreign financial information agencies operating in China."
The new restrictions have also had an impact on the forthcoming 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. At the time of its 2001 bidding for the Games, China pledged that acceptance of its bid would help promote the development of human rights in the country.
Amnesty International recently reported that, with human rights activists and journalists continuing to be harassed, China was failing to live up to its promises. Moreover, Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, has announced new legislation regulating the anticipated 20,000-strong international media covering the Olympics would be issued in 2007.
The Communist Party leadership appears nervous of any social or economic criticism that its domestic media might report. By controlling news distribution by foreign media outlets, it limits the access that Chinese domestic news outlets have to a wider network of news sources.
If the Chinese government hopes to counter its pressing problems, such as endemic corruption, failing financial institutions and environmental degradation, a more assertive domestic media that is prepared to investigate and report on abuses, especially at the local and municipal levels, is essential. Passage of these new regulations is a move in the opposite direction.
--Robert Henderson is an international consultant with the R+E+A Group (Ottawa, Canada).
Copyright 2006 by Robert Henderson