China taking a page from Obama's playbook:
China to create blacklist of local journalists
AP News
Friday, February 13, 2009
China plans to create a blacklist of journalists who break its reporting rules, state media reported Friday, adding to an array of controls used to restrict its domestic media.
According to a report in the China Press and Publishing Journal, the agency that exercises control over the state-owned Chinese media plans to "establish a database of media professionals with a bad record."
It said reporters who violate the rules or laws will have their press cards taken away. "Their names will be entered into the list and they will be restricted from news reporting or editing work," Li Dongdong, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, was quoted as saying.
China's state-run media are tightly controlled and regularly censored in reporting the news. China relaxed some restrictions on foreign media during the Olympic Games last summer, but has since backtracked. Sensitive or negative issues are often ignored while Chinese journalists have been imprisoned for aggressive reporting on corruption in the private sector or the government.
The national database is among a series of regulations being proposed to boost government supervision of news coverage, Li said. Among them are tightened reviews for press credentials as well as standardized qualifications for newspaper and magazine editors.
The measures don't apply to foreign journalists in China, who are regulated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Chinese citizens are prohibited from working as journalists for foreign media organizations.
Li said the measures were needed to "resolutely prevent fake reporting."
Journalists have at times sought bribes in return for not reporting negative news, such as coal mine accidents, and frequently accept cash or guaranteed advertising in return for glowing coverage.
Though bribery and fake news are a concern, the much larger issue is one of censorship, said Vincent Brossel of Reporters without Borders.
"What we've been monitoring is that when the government is saying that they are cracking down on fake news, they are also cracking down on independent journalists and critical reports," he said.
There is a concern that the government is stepping up control of the media this year because of a number of sensitive anniversaries approaching, including the 50th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising and the 20th anniversary of the crackdown in Tiananmen Square, Brossel said.
"We don't know what effect it will have, but it is a concern," he said.
A staffer at the All China Journalists Association said he had heard about the proposed rules but declined to comment.
During last summer's Olympic Games, Beijing loosened some media and Internet controls, with the aim of showing that the games had brought greater freedom to the Chinese people. As part of its winning bid for the games, Beijing had pledged to widen media freedom.
But in the months since last August, China has blocked foreign and domestic Web sites, including those of The New York Times, the British Broadcasting Corp., and Ming Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper. It has also attempted to silence a number of pro-democracy dissidents by jailing them.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of China reported on its Web site more than 335 cases of violence, detention and other harassment of reporters and their contacts since the beginning of 2007.
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