China has issued new Internet regulations increasing the Chinese Communist Party’s control over online news providers, the latest step in the nation’s push to tighten its policing of the Web.
The party oversees a vast apparatus designed to censor online content deemed politically sensitive, maintaining that such measures are necessary for the protection of national security.
Sites blocked due to their content or sensitivity — including Facebook and Twitter — cannot be accessed in China without special software that allows users to bypass the strict controls.
New regulations released by the Cyberspace Administration of China on Tuesday will increase party control over who can publish what online, taking effect on June 1.
All Web sites, apps, forums, blogs, microblogs, social media accounts, instant messaging and live streaming platforms and other entities that select or edit news will need a license to post reports or commentary about the government, economy, military, foreign affairs and social issues, the agency said.
Such online news service providers must “correctly guide public opinion” and “serve the cause of socialism,” while “safeguarding national and public interests,” it said.
Business and editorial operations must be kept separate, and those who do not receive public funding will not be allowed to conduct original reporting, it added.
Staff at online outlets must undergo government training and assessment, and receive official accreditation, while top editors must be approved.
Additionally, no Chinese outlets may set up a joint venture with a foreign partner without undergoing a “security assessment” through the State Council Information Office.
Online news providers that fail to comply with the new regulations will have their licenses revoked and receive fines of up to 30,000 yuan (US$4,352).
Qiao Mu (喬木), an independent media studies academic and former professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said that the regulations seemed intended to “strike fear” into commercial media companies, such as Internet behemoth Tencent, which could lose their licenses if they break the rules.
“They won’t dare to cover sensitive news and will only use official media on those topics, limiting them to financial, entertainment and sports coverage,” he said.
In the past, such outlets “already self-censored because they understood the unwritten rules, but now the rules are clear-cut and public,” he said.
The new guidelines come after the passing of a controversial cybersecurity bill in November last year, which also tightened restrictions on online freedom of speech.
Paris-based monitoring group Reporters Without Borders last week ranked China as the fifth-worst country in the world for press freedom, coming in 176th out of 180 countries, just one place ahead of war-torn Syria.
“Since the current leadership came to power, their ideology seems to be moving in a backward direction away from free market capitalist ideals,” Qiao said.
“It’s like a revival of the Cultural Revolution,” he said.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the