Freedom of Expression

Ouyang Yi Released

Reporters Without Borders reported that Chinese authorities have released Ouyang Yi following the completion of his two year sentence. Former teacher Ouyang Yi was detained by the Chengdu Public Security Bureau in December 2002 after he co-authored an open letter with Zhao Changqing to the 16th Party Congress. HRIC reported that the letter requested reassessment of the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests, restoring Zhao Ziyang’s political rights and releasing him from house arrest, and releasing all prisoners of conscience. The letter was signed by almost 200 people, including Dai Xuezhong, Han Lifa, He Depu, Sang Jiancheng, and Jiang Lijun, who were also subsequently detained. Ouyang Yi was formally arrested in January 2003, tried, in October 2003, and sentenced in March 2004 to two years in prison by the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court for inciting subversion.

In mid-October 2004, three academic organizations studying news and broadcasting announced a conference on "Public Opinion Supervision" to be held on December 12, 2004. The announcement noted that similar conferences on "Public Opinion Supervision through the Media in the New Century" had been held in December 2001, 2002, and 2003. It also emphasized that the Chinese Communist Party's Regulation on Inner-Party Supervision, issued in early 2004, included public opinion supervision in a special section.

The announcement lists the topics to be covered in this year's conference:

1. Media Supervision in the new social environment since the third plenum of the 16th Party Congress.
2. Promotion and guarantee of media supervision under the "Regulation on Inner-Party Supervision".
3. Media supervision and the transformation of Chinese society.
4. Media supervision and the next stage of media reform.

An article in the "Economic Information News" reports how easy it is to get a private satellite dish installed in Beijing, despite their being illegal. The article claims that the dangers of not enforcing laws against the installation of private satellite dishes include piracy, smuggling, uneven pricing, and fraud, and concludes by calling for more strict enforcement of the laws.

But a lack of law enforcement is not the cause of the problems cited in the article. Rather, the underground market that the author criticizes results directly from the Chinese government's censorship policies. To control the flow of news to the Chinese people from satellites, whose signals authorities are unable to block (as they do with the Internet), the Chinese government bans private satellite dish ownership. Were the government’s primary concerns about piracy and fraud, the appropriate policy response would be regulation, not a complete ban on private ownership.

The official People's Daily has reprinted a November 2004 article from the Wenhui Bao that emphasized controlling the opinions expressed on the Internet. The article appears to state the importance of balancing the need to have the Internet stimulate China's economy with the need to silence dissent on the Internet and manipulate public opinion. It represents a clear statement that Chinese authorities do not view the "freedom of speech" guaranteed in China's constitution as an individual right, but rather as a privilege that Chinese citizens may exercise only if they are "well-intentioned" towards the government and the Party.

According to a Kyodo News Service report, on December 4, a group of approximately 500 petitioners gathered outside the main office of state-run China Central Television and protested government bias in the media.

Hong Kong media sources suggest the size of the crowd may have run into the thousands, and indicate that it was forcibly dispersed by the police shortly after beginning. Because of tight government control, organized protests of this size in Beijing are relatively rare. No coverage of the incident in mainland Chinese media has been observed.

According to a report in the Financial Times (subscription required), Liu Binjie, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, said that China "will allow foreign newspapers to come and print in China . . . but their newspapers still have to go through the procedures for an imported product." Liu's remarks were also reported in the China Daily and People's Daily.

Several media outlets in China have reported the conclusion of court proceedings in the defamation suit against the China Youth Daily filed by a judge imprisoned for corruption.

In August 2001, the China Youth Daily published an article entitled "Uncovering Yong Bao's Umbrella: a Godfather, a Godmother, and a Mistress," claiming that three government officials were acting to protect mafia boss Yong Bao. The article labeled one of the three, Jiao Meigui, an Intermediate Court judge in Luoyang, as his "mistress."

In October 2004, several sources reported that Xiao Weibin, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Tong Zhou Gong Jin," was fired for publishing an interview with former Guangdong Party leader Ren Zhongyi. The South China Morning Post (subscription required) now reports that five of the six members of the advisory board for Tong Zhou Gong Jin, including Ren Zhongyi, have resigned in protest at the sacking.