Freedom of Expression

The National Copyright Administration (NCAC) has published an English-language version of the draft of the Regulations for the Protection of the Right of Communication on Information Networks on its Web site and has solicited public comments by October 31. The NCAC action in this case complies with a key WTO accession commitment to provide a reasonable period to comment on new trade-related measures and to provide a translation of all trade-related measures in one of the WTO languages.

Government agencies in Foshan in Guangdong province have launched a strike hard campaign to clean up that city's cultural industries, according to a September 30 article posted on the Foshan Daily's Web site. The article cited the head of the city's press and publication administration as telling a city-wide "cultural market administration" meeting that authorities would "clean up and confiscate" all "illegal political publications."

The Harbin branch of the National Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications Task Force has hired fifty new "supervisory" personnel to "supervise and inspect" publishing enterprises in Harbin, according to September 30 Xinhua report. The report stated that their duties include monitoring for unlicensed printing presses and sales of "illegal political publications."

The local divisions of the General Administration of Press and Publication, Ministry of Public Security, State Administration of Industry and Commerce, State Copyright Office, and the Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications Task Force are launching a joint campaign to "discipline" printing enterprises in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, according to a September 1 report on Xinhua's Web site. The report said that among the targets of the campaign are enterprises engaged in publishing illegal political publications.

Chinese government regulators blocked Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.'s plan to operate a television channel in China, according to an August 30 New York Times report (registration required). According to the Times, News Corp. had been distributing the National Geographic Channel, a music channel, and other programming to local cable television companies without government permission. The government's action coincides with its recent promulgation of several regulations that limit foreign access to China's media industry:

The National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets (NAPSS) announced that information about the number of fatalities caused by natural disasters will no longer be a state secret, according to a September 12 Xinhua article. A NAPSS spokesperson told a joint NAPSS and Ministry of Civil Affairs news conference that releasing this information would benefit disaster prevention and relief work, according to the report. Therefore, the relevant provisions of the "Rules on State Secrets and the Scope of Their Classification in Civil Affairs Work" were annulled, the spokesperson said.

Public security officials interrogated Chen Guangcheng on September 23, according to a September 25 report of the Voice of America (in Chinese). Chen is a lawyer who brought international news media attention to illegal physical coercion by population planning officials in Linyi in Shandong province. Officials continue to hold under house arrest Chen and at least one other person who has been associated with him.