China intensified its clampdown on local and foreign media last year, with reporters facing violence, censorship and arbitrary detention, a report by an international press watchdog said.
Beijing also closed down social networking sites and moved to restrict online news under numerous regulations introduced last year by local censors to control what the media says, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said.
“Banned topics range from events associated with social unrest and public protests against authorities to reports of photos of an actress topless on a Caribbean beach,” the Brussels-based group said.
Signs that China was loosening controls on the media in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics had faded by early last year, according to the report titled China Clings to Control: Press Freedom in 2009 released in Hong Kong on Sunday.
“Authorities sought to re-exert control on the media and information, focusing in particular on the rising power of the Internet as a means for social expression and organizing,” the IFJ said.
The report was issued against the backdrop of a row over US Internet giant Google, which has said it would no longer bow to Chinese censorship and threatened to halt its operations in China in protest over cyber attacks.
“We ... call on the international community to take a principled stand to oppose all forms of restrictions on the rights of journalists to do their work in China,” IFJ general secretary Aiden White said.
These include a “steady stream of official bans, as well as new rules in 2009 which make it virtually impossible for local journalists who work in traditional or online media to receive the accreditation they need in order to conduct their profession,” he said.
The report highlighted a catalogue of restrictions that impeded the work of the media in the world’s most populous nation. They included banning journalists from going to Sichuan Province to report on the massive 2008 earthquake and telling the media to only use Xinhua news agency reports on the tainted milk scandal and US President Barack Obama’s first official visit to China in November.
China also banned reporting on photos of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon actress Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) topless on a Caribbean beach and prohibited entertainment programs from covering celebrity love affairs or scandals, it said.
In the lead-up to National Day on Oct. 1, more than 10 orders were issued to prohibit the media from reporting at Tiananmen Square and other public venues, the report said.
Incidents of violence against foreign media declined last year, which the IFJ attributed to their reduced presence in China after the Olympics.
“Even so, foreign journalists still encountered many obstacles and difficulties through 2009, including acts of violence, destruction of work materials and equipment, prevention of access to public spaces,surveillance and reprimands,” the report said.
Authorities targeted journalists’ sources, assistants and drivers “to obstruct foreign media reporting on events in China.”
Local journalists were forced into self-censorship over concerns they might lose their accreditation, the report said, adding that the “biggest taboo” for Chinese media was the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for