Freedom of Expression
According to the China Court Network, the libel trial against Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao, authors of a banned journalistic expose on the exploitative conditions faced by Chinese farmers, opened on August 24. Their book, titled "A Survey of Chinese Farmers," initially generated intense public interest and official praise upon its publication in January 2004, but was banned by government censors a month later, presumably for its detailed reporting on particular local government abuses.
Chen and Wu, along with their publisher, People's Literary Publishing Press are currently defendants in a libel case brought by Zhang Xide, a local official mentioned by name in their book.
According to a report on the trial from Boxun Chinese authorities prohibited reporters from the New York Times and Washington Post from observing the trial, but has allowed reporters from China's state-controlled media to attend.
The Wall Street Journal has published an article discussing various ways Chinese authorities censor the Internet. Several of the techniques, such as blocking Google's cache and filtering key words on Google searches, have been known for some time (see CECC 2003 Annual Report, p. 39). Other techniques discussed in the WSJ article include a list of banned words and phrases such as "freedom" and "democracy" that the Chinese company Tencent embeds in desktop software to filter messaging among PCs and cellphones. A complete list of the words is available from the China Digital News.
Citing the Huasheng Morning Post, the South China Morning Post reports that the Liaoning Telecommunications Administration Bureau shut down the website of Jiang Huanwen of Shenyang. According to the report, the government claimed it closed Mr. Jiang's website, www.jubao007.com, because it was violating criminal procedure laws by accepting reports of crimes from individuals. The SCMP said that, according to China's state media, Mr Jiang had reported more than 400 cases to authorities and had been paid 150,000 yuan in government rewards.
Citing Xinhua, the People's Daily reports that on September 5 the Ministry of of Culture announced that "Quake 3" and five other computer games were, among other things, harming China's national security. The MOC called on government authorities to undertake inspections and issue orders to halt the distribution of these games.
According to a report carried on the People's Daily website, on September 9 Liu Bo, Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication's Publication Distribution Administration Department, told representatives of several privately run book companies with publication distribution rights that Chinese authorities would not allow privately owned enterprises to establish book publishing houses any time in the next few years.
Director Liu also said, however, that while state-owned publishers that convert to an enterprise structure will not be allowed to accept foreign investment, they will be allowed to accept domestic investment. He suggested that private book companies could be shareholders in such entities and use this method to "get their foot in the door" to obtain the right to publish.
On September 9 the Legal Daily published an article carrying some impressions Chinese scholars have regarding regulation of the Internet and the right to privacy. The facts underlying the discussion center on a case wherein two people were arrested in Sichuan in August, 2004 for viewing pornographic websites in their homes.
According to the Legal Daily article, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researcher Mo Jihong believes that rights can be divided into two categories:
- "Basic Rights", which are rights set forth in the Constitution and which can be used to oppose the authority of the State, and which administrative organs do not have the authority to restrict through laws and regulations.
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"Civil Rights," which are rights that cannot be used to oppose the authority of the State.
Reuters reports that a court in Guangdong province has sentenced Li Yuanjiang, former editor-in-chief of the Guangzhou Daily newspaper, to twelve years in prison for accepting more than $60,000 in bribes over a period of nearly ten years.
Li's sentence comes on the heels of the release of Cheng Yizhong, a former editor of the Guangdong-based Southern Metropolitan Daily, whom Chinese authorities held for more than five months without charge. Citing journalists in Beijing, Reuters reports that Cheng is now virtually under house arrest.
Li Minying and Yu Huafeng, two of Cheng's colleagues at the Southern Metropolitan Daily and its parent company, The Southern Group, were sentenced in March to jail terms of 12 and 11 years respectively (reduced on appeal to 8 and 6 years).
Radio Free Asia reports that the Southern Metropolitan Daily's former deputy editor-in-chief and Southern Group general manager Yu Huafeng and former editor Li Minying are currently appealing their jail sentences, which were already slashed from 12 and 11 years to eight and six years respectively by the Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate People’s Court on appeal in June.
Outlook News Weekly, a publication of China's state-run Xinhua News Agency, published an article on September 2 warning of the dangers of free flow of information on the Internet, praising Chinese government Internet censorship efforts, and calling for increased regulation of Internet content. The article, reprinted in the People's Daily and entitled "The Current Situation and Guidance of Internet Public Opinion" encourages the government to guide, monitor, and control information published on the Internet, and warns that a failure to do so will cause China to be "invaded" by foreign culture and all Internet users to "suffer greatly."
The Lawyer for the recently freed editor of the Southern Metropolitan Daily will now focus his efforts on winning an appeal by executive Yu Huafeng, currently serving 8 years in the same case. Zhang Xingshui attributes Cheng Yizhong's release to a procuratorial finding of insufficient evidence prompted by intervention of a "higher official."