The Spy Trap Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong-based correspondent for Singapore’s Straits Times, was arrested in Guangzhou in April 2005 while trying to obtain transcripts of interviews with the late Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang, who was ousted in 1989 for expressing sympathy with Tiananmen demonstrators. Ching was later sentenced to five years in prison for…
Search Engines Sift and Censor Type something as benign-sounding as “open letter” into a Chinese Internet search engine, and it’s likely you won’t get a complete list of the Web’s offerings on that topic. For China’s Internet police, a critical first step in controlling the flow of online information is to filter search results. Search…
The Media Managers An array of committees and agencies collaborate to promote the official line. For party officials, ‘propaganda’ is no dirty word. Among party officials responsible for media content, the word xuanchuan, or “propaganda,” does not have a negative connotation. In recognition of the discomfort it evokes among foreigners, however, the department overseeing China’s…
Politics and the Press: A Timeline The flow from censors was daily, unrelenting, and covered every conceivable topic, from the serious to the banal. December 4, 1982 China adopts constitution. Article 35 states: “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession, and of…
Politics and the Press: A Timeline December 4, 1982 China adopts new constitution. Article 35 states: “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession, and of demonstration.”
Guidelines for Reporters on the Ground Although authorities have tried to be more media-friendly for the Olympics, they are still determined to control information. Visiting journalists, especially those new to China’s uncertain media environment, should hire a savvy and trustworthy assistant.
Directing the News The flow from censors was daily, unrelenting, and covered every conceivable topic, from the serious to the banal. Jimmy Cheng Qinghua, an editor for state-run China Radio International (CRI) in Beijing, saw thousands of coverage directives cross his organization’s internal network. Each day, directives came down from the Propaganda Department of the…
Writing (Ethical Code) U.S. Internet companies, eager to take advantage of China’s huge market, have been caught up in the state’s repressive machinery. With double-digit economic growth and more than 130 million people online, China is a market that makes U.S. Internet companies salivate. But the political cost at home of grabbing a slice of…
Common Sense As a Weapon “Using common sense as a weapon, we will surely destroy the nightmare woven with fear and lies.” Cheng Yizhong, former editor-in-chief of Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolis News), was detained for five months in 2004 after the Guangzhou paper’s investigative reporting embarrassed local officials. The newspaper broke news that a…