Since the news came out earlier this week that the Chinese parliament is considering a draft law which would - among other things - fine media outlets for reporting breaking news without authorization, the outcry from Chinese journalists and many others in China has been growing. Even Chinese media outlets like China Radio International are covering the controversy.
A number of people are following developments closely and translating key Chinese-language articles and blog posts. Roland Soong at ESWN is naturally on the case, wondering whether, if professional news outlets are prevented from covering breaking news, perhaps this might make blogs, BBS, and other citizens' media even more important?
Hong Kong University's China Media Project has excellent translation, summary, and analysis here and here. They point out that newspapers in Southern China are "are leading the push against the media-related clause." Here's one quote from a Guangzhou editorial that they have translated in full:
In such situations this clause of the draft law would actually become a tool for corrupt local officials who want to cover up their dirty deeds – a highly effective legal sanction for [these governments] to set their own ground rules and avoid watchdog journalism ("supervision by public opinion").
Read the whole post here.
China Digital Times continues to link furiously to everything coming out on the web about the controversy. Danwei has some excellent stuff from the Chinese blogosphere (one blogger says: "Huh? So what are you going to report?"). Non-violent Resistance calls the bill an "audacious assault on press freedom" and then points us to an analysis on the website of the Beijing-based Caijing Magazine. He writes:
The story quotes Yu An, a law professor at Tsinghua University and a member of its drafting committee, as saying, "I have no idea how this clause was added into (the bill). It was not there when the experts first discussed (the bill)."
Ying Songnian, a member of the NPC's Civil and Judicial Affairs Committee who will be one of those reviewing the bill, told Caijing, "based on our experience with SARS, only information openness would help calm people down, and make disaster-relief efforts more effective."
Another interviewed legal scholar, Prof. Zhang Qianfan of Peking University's law school, says that the bill is "inappropriate" because "only under extremely peculiar situations could media coverage render more negative effects (on emergency management) than positive. The bill makes an extreme situation into a general rule, which is unbalanced legislation, and inappropriate."
Another "constitutional law expert" who wishes to remain anonymous is more blunt, if less open about his identity: "What if a local government tries to cover up an emergency situation? Can't the media even expose that?" He goes on to call the proposed fine for media outlets "ridiculous" in the sense that, under the law, a county government trying to manage a local emergency situation like a mining disaster or avian flu outbreak, would have the power to "regulate" all media seeking to cover the incident. "How much discretionary power will this local government have? And who is to supervise it?"
It is exactly this kind of domestic media fire what we need to thwart this EVIL attempt to silence the country's honest media outlets. So far it seems only a few are daring enough to do this, including Southern Metropolis Daily. I just hope it's not too little too late.
It is encouraging to see how many journalists in China are sticking their necks out to fight for their right to do real journalism. Let's hope that enough people in the Chinese government recognize that if the media is prevented from reporting breaking news without approval, China will become even more ungovernable than it already is. Killing journalism is bad for China's economy. It's bad for investment, which requires reliable and fast information from credible sources (not just rumors from anonymous sources in Chinese chatrooms). It will not be good for Chinese social stability, public health, disaster, response or anything else. Muzzling the media as the legislation proposes will send local corruption even further out of control.
Journalists won't stop trying, though. They will just be driven even further underground, and onto the Internet BBS forums and blogs. It will be even harder for the public to get access to reliable information for which the author is able to take responsibility, because they'll have no alternative to an online rumor mill. Public panic in the face of disasters will thus be more likely.
Such legislation will also make Chinese journalists even more disillusioned about the regime. Most of the Chinese journalists I know would like to see their government succeed. They would like to serve as loyal watchdogs, uncovering problems not to tear down the government but so that problems can be fixed and crises can be addressed. If the Chinese government won't allow Chinese journalists to play this role, it will once again be cutting off its nose to spite its face.
Let's see how smart or dumb the Chinese leadership really is. Let's see whether they're so paranoid they're willing to destroy the country and alienate many patriotic Chinese citizens in order to stifle any possible threat to their personal power.
