Chinese internet regulators have fined and shut down several major news site webpages this week for producing ‘original news reporting’. Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper’s columnist Shan Renping responds to the recent developments in the sphere of China’s online news reporting and its censorship.
China’s State Internet Information Office (北京市网信办) has halted the activities of several pages of China’s online news sites for violating national guidelines on spreading online information. The portals were allegedly ‘too independent’ in their reporting. News of the recent censorship came out on July 25 on Chinese official news sites such as People’s Daily.
One of the sites that was closed this week is Sina’s News Geek (极客新闻). But sites run by other Chinese media giants such as Sohu, iFeng, and Netease also went offline this week, along with their social media accounts.
“Commercial websites have no other option but to face existing rules on news reporting in China – for their own good and that of the country.”
Shan Renping (单仁平), widely regarded to be the pseudonym of Global Times’ editor-in-chief Hu Xijin, dedicated a special column to the issue in Global Times of July 26. Global Times is a state-run Chinese news outlet under the auspices of the People’s Daily.
In his latest editorial, Shan argues that commercial websites have no other option but to face existing rules on news reporting in China – for their own good and that of the country.
“Stopping websites from violating existing guidelines is a sensitive issue”, Shan writes, “as many of these platforms have become used to breaking through the managing stipulations. [Because] in society, there are many people who see this as an expression of ‘freedom of press’.”
Shan explains this existing ‘freedom of press’ as follows: “In the case of China, websites are first developed; the managing regulations catch up with them later.” This means that there can be a time that these websites operate in all freedom before they are stopped due their violation of existing laws.
In the current situation, Shan says, the guidelines have since long been determined in the ‘Supervisory Stipulations for Internet News Services’ (互联网新闻信息服务管理规定). Yet some websites were in clear violation of the 16th article in it.
The 16th article states that websites set up by “non-News Work Units” are not permitted to do their own reporting. Instead, they are required to follow the news stories that are published by media outlets that are part of China’s official media system (HRW 2006, 19).
“Profit-driven websites often lack the “ideological complexity” that is needed in today’s China.”
Shan says that the rise of commercial news sites has drastically changed China’s media environment – bringing much more vigor, but also much more problems. Commercial news outlets often have many financial and technical resources to become leaders within their field, but are less pressured to bear responsibility for the news they bring.
For most of China’s traditional media outlets, social responsibility is a main priority, Shan writes, but this makes it hard for them to compete with the new commercial websites and their “sensational headlines”.
Shan argues that Beijing’s guidelines on Internet News should be upheld and monitored – they have been compiled for good reasons by people experienced in the development of China’s internet. Moreover, Shan writes, profit-driven websites often lack the “ideological complexity” that is needed in today’s China.
He continues: “The news business has a strong political character and a major responsibility. Its organization and development has its own rules and logic under China’s political system. Any explorations of its reform should be in sync with the reforms of the nation at large.”
“Just as the world has thousands kinds of butterflies, it also has different societies where freedom of press has different functions and meanings.”
“When it comes to the supervision of news, the West has provided us with a ready-made concept: freedom of press. [But] it must be noted that China’s development is systematically different from the West. It is very difficult to take out a specific concept by itself and maintain its value and balance across different systems. Just as the world has thousands kinds of butterflies, it also has different societies where freedom of press has different functions and meanings.”
Shan encourages those sites that have been shut down to look at the bright side: “This might also be a new opportunity. Reform always comes with some sort of force. The question is how to use this ‘force’ to your advantage and join it.”
“Can there be no existence of alternate voices?”
One commenter who calls himself a ‘Friend of Global Times’ fully agrees with columnist Shan Renping: “Although they are commercial websites, they are still Chinese websites and shouldn’t become a platform for anti-Chinese trends. If there are not properly supervised, the consequences might be very grave.”
Although on Sina Weibo, many netizens are seemingly not too interested in the topic, many also see the recent developments as a good thing as they are tired of “a messy internet”, with too much web pages with “advertisements for games or shopping, and vulgar porn ads”, and “rumor-starting”.
But not all netizens think alike. “What does this all solve?” one commenter wonders: “Does it just mean to go with the Party, listen to the Party, and that there can be no existence of alternate voices?”
All in all, a seeming majority of Chinese netizens seem to understand China’s recent media clampdown: “Right now there are some independent media that are followed by many people, and they’re not after the truth but after eye-catchers. But they still lead public opinion – which is just not good.”
– By Manya Koetse
References
* Human Rights Watch. 2006. “”Race to the Bottom”: Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship.” Volume 18 (Aug).
* Shan Renping. 2016. “商业网站或应面对新闻监管顺势而为 [commercial websites should face regulations and treat them as an opportunity]” Global Times, July 26 http://opinion.huanqiu.com/shanrenping/2016-07/9225316.html [26.07.16].
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