Freedom of Expression
Following warnings issued via the People's Daily last week from the Ministry of Public Security not to use the Internet and cell phones to organize unauthorized demonstrations, the Shanghai Evening Post, which is published by the Shanghai Communist Party committee, published an article on April 25 warning citizens not to use cell phones to "spread rumors." Entitled, "Short Text Message Rumors: Don't Trust Them, Don't Spread Them," the article is apparently another attempt by Chinese authorities to discourage anti-Japanese protests.
The article cited an "expert with the Shanghai Lawyer's Association" as saying:
According to its Web site, the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) held a seminar at a tea house in Chengdu on April 23 to discuss "Liu Binyan and The Immortal Exiles (a book dedicated to Liu Binyan’s 80th birthday)." More than forty writers, poets, and scholars attended the seminar, which was co-sponsored by Chengdu's Caotang Reading Society.
On October 30, 2004, ICPC held a meeting near Beijing, where ICPC president Liu Xiaobo presented the Second Freedom to Write Award to Zhang Yihe for her work "Days of Old Do Not Disappear Like Smoke." Two months later Chinese authorities detained three ICPC members, including Liu.
According to a report from the Beijing Youth Daily reprinted in on the People's Daily Web site, media outlets in China are likely to lose when they are sued. The article, entitled "When the Media Get Sued - 14 Losses and 1 Win," found that out of 15 cases of "media infringement" tried in the First Beijing Intermediate People's Court in 2004, the media lost 14.
The report said that, of the 15 cases, 10 involved infringement on the right to reputation, and these cases could be divided into six types:
Chinese authorities appear to be calling a halt to relatively unrestrained public expression about Japan, after weeks of allowing, and in some cases encouraging, Chinese citizens to express anti-Japanese sentiment. On April 22, the front page of the People's Daily carried an article saying that the Ministry of Public Security had said that they "hope people will not use the Internet or phone text messaging to broadcast information to encourage people to participate in demonstrations." On the same day, Agence France Presse reported that Chinese authorities had shut down Web sites that had carried messages calling for large-scale demonstrations on May 1 and May 4 in Shanghai, Nanjing, Wenzhou, and Chongqing.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security announced April 21 that anti-Japan demonstrations must stay within the rules laid down by the Law of the People's Republic of China on Rallies, Parades, and Demonstrations and associated regulations. Under these laws, anyone organizing such events must first apply to the police, and only proceed after getting a permit. Failing to get approval from the police, or failing to conform to the guidelines laid down by the police permit as to purpose, means, posters, slogans, time of beginning and end, place, and route, or endangering public safety and disrupting public order are all illegal. The police will firmly find and punish anyone who seizes this opportunity to disrupt public order, according to the spokesman.
Xinhua reports that the Communist Party's Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security and Central Committee of Political Science and Law held a joint meeting in Nanning city, Guangxi province on March 26 and 27. According to Xinhua Wang Shengjun, secretary of the CMPS and a member of the CPSL, told the meeting that political and legal agencies should have a "correct attitude regarding public opinion supervision and critical reporting," provided they are "well meaning and conducive to the work of making improvements." The report also cited Wang as calling on the Committees to "vigorously undertake the propaganda offensive."
The People's Daily reports that the General Administration of Press and Publication has approved the establishment of China's first media organization using a shareholding system. According to the People's Daily, the company, called the China Insurance Newspaper Limited Liability Company, will be co-led by a board of directors and a Communist Party committee. The report cited the company's Chairman as saying that the company would "ensure the Party's leadership of the media, and ensure correct guidance of public opinion. . . ."
The Wall Street Journal reports that Eutelsat has "backed off its plan to stop broadcasting programming for New Tang Dynasty Television into China." The WSJ cited an NTDTV official as saying that the sides had worked out an interim arrangement to continue the broadcasts while they try to negotiate a longer-term compromise.
The People's Daily reports that Communist Party and government representatives met on March 25 in Beijing to discuss the current status and future direction of China's media reforms. According to the People's Daily, attendees of the "Research Conference on Trends in Media Reform and Development" included senior officials from the Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department, the State Development and Reform Commission, and the General Administration of Press and Publication.
Click "more" below for excerpts from some of the speeches given at the conference.
Shi Feng, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication
The General Administration of Press and Publication has banned 19 newspapers as part of its ongoing "Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications" campaign, according to an article on the People's Daily Web site. The article reports that the publications were closed because they were pirating or fraudulently using the book numbers of other publications. The ban follows the government's closure of 60 news, law, education, and lifestyle publications in November 2004. Provincial governments report destroying tens of thousands of political publications as part of the campaign.