The Chinese government is holding chief editors of news Web sites liable for content, months after several portals posted material that was seen as embarrassing to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
State media on Thursday reported that the new rules placed responsibility squarely on head editors, saying news sites must monitor their content 24 hours a day to ensure “correct orientation, factual accuracy and appropriate sourcing.”
The new rules were discussed at a meeting in Beijing this week convened by the government’s Cyberspace Administration of China and involving 60 media executives and industry academics, Xinhua news agency said.
The rules reflect the Xi administration’s efforts to ratchet up control over Chinese media and cyberspace, which has touched both traditional state outlets and private-sector companies.
Although efforts by Chinese Internet censors to purge rumors, unwanted political content and pornography are nothing new, a series of high-profile gaffes in recent months have intensified scrutiny of news portals, which are seen by the majority of the 700 million Chinese Internet users.
GAFFES
Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), one of China’s most popular Web sites, fired its top editor after a headline last month mistakenly said Xi delivered a “furious” — instead of “important” — speech commemorating a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) anniversary.
The two words are similar in the Chinese writing system.
In March, an online portal called Wujie (無界) published — apparently inadvertently — a letter calling for Xi’s resignation and warning of dangers to his personal safety.
The post garnered widespread attention among Chinese political observers and led to the detention of several writers and editors.
MEDIA TOUR
The Chinese leader made a high-profile tour of state media outlets in February to demand closer adherence to the CCP line, while the cyberspace administration, the nation’s Internet censor, investigated the editorial operations of eight Web companies several months later.
Chinese Web companies are only permitted to republish content produced by closely regulated traditional media outlets under longstanding, though loosely enforced, media laws.
PRIVATE OUTLETS
Many private digital firms, including Tencent and Sina (新浪) — Internet companies publicly listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ respectively — have formed teams of journalists who pursue original reporting and operate with a degree of relative freedom.
Participants at this week’s meeting with regulators were told to avoid publishing to “attract eyeballs” and operate their portals with “responsibility and restraint” to avoid spreading disorder and potentially endangering national security, Xinhua reported.
Regulators also directed company executives to study Xi’s remarks calling for closer online information management.
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