China Tightens Its Restrictions for News Media on the Internet

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Mon, 26 Sep 2005 08:34:07 -0600

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September 26, 2005

China Tightens Its Restrictions for News Media on the Internet

By JOSEPH KAHN

The New York Times

 

BEIJING, Sept. 25 - China on Sunday imposed more restrictions intended

to limit the news and other information available to Internet users,

and it sharply restricted the scope of content permitted on Web sites.

 

The rules are part of a broader effort to roll back what the Communist

Party views as a threatening trend toward liberalization in the news

media. Taken together, the measures amount to a stepped-up effort to

police the Internet, which has become a dominant source of news and

information for millions of urban Chinese.

 

Major search engines and portals like Sina.com and Sohu.com, used by

millions of Chinese each day, must stop posting their own commentary

articles and instead make available only opinion pieces generated by

government-controlled newspapers and news agencies, the regulations

stipulate.

 

The rules also state that private individuals or groups must register

as " news organizations " before they can operate e-mail distribution

lists that spread news or commentary. Few individuals or private

organizations are likely to be allowed to register as news

organizations, meaning they can no longer legally distribute

information by e-mail.

 

Existing online news sites, like those run by newspapers or magazines,

must " give priority " to news and commentary pieces distributed by the

leading national and provincial news organs.

 

This restriction on the ability of Web sites to republish articles

produced by the huge array of news organizations that do not fall

under direct government control seems intended to ensure that the

Propaganda Department has time to filter content generated by local

publications before it can be widely disseminated on the Internet.

 

The new rules are the first major update to policies on Internet news

and opinion since 2000.

 

" The foremost responsibility of news sites on the Internet is to serve

the people, serve socialism, guide public opinion in the right

direction, and uphold the interests of the country and the public

good, " the regulations state.

 

Although Chinese authorities have already effectively unlimited powers

to control the gathering and publication of news, the Propaganda

Department has sometimes struggled to censor information about

delicate developments before it circulates on the Internet.

 

About 100 million Chinese now have access to the Internet. Though the

government closely monitors domestic content and blocks what officials

consider to be subversive Web sites from overseas, savvy users can

obtain domestic and overseas information that never appears in China's

traditional news media.

 

By the time officials have decided that a topic might prove harmful to

the governing party's agenda, an item about it has often already been

posted or discussed on hundreds of sites and viewed by many people,

defeating some traditional censorship tools.

 

Experts who follow the Internet say one of the most significant

changes is the ban on self-generated opinion and commentary articles

that accompany the standard state-issued news bulletins on major

portal sites.

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/26/international/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=pri\

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