IFJ Press Freedom in China Campaign Bulletin: June 8, 2012

IFJ Press Freedom in China Campaign Bulletin

June 8, 2012

Welcome to IFJ Asia-Pacific’s monthly Press Freedom in China Campaign e-bulletin. The next bulletin will be sent on July 8, 2012, and contributions are most welcome.

To contribute news or information, email ifj@ifj-asia.org. To visit the IFJ’s China Campaign page, go to www.ifj.org.

1) Editor Dismissed for Making Online Comment

Yu Chen, 39, the Editor of the in-depth investigative news desk of the Guangdong-based national newspaper, Southern Metropolitan Newspaper, was suspended, and later forced to resign, from his position because of online comments he made using the newspaper’s microblog account. Yu is the second journalist was punished due to expressing his own view on National Defence. In March, Li Delin was punished by police after merely forwarding an online message. Yu’s comment was made in response to a post questioning whether China’s Ministry of National Defence should serve the Chinese Communist Party or the country as a whole. On 5 June, the People’s Daily, a Communist Party-controlled paper, published an article written by Zhang Yang, a member of China’s Ministry of National Defence (Guangzhou District) that all Chairmen of the Central Military Commission of China have already adopted the principle that the Ministry should serve the Party. The article was republished in the Guangdong media the next day. The IFJ urges China’s authorities to respect the right of China’s citizens to express themselves online and urges the Editor-in-Chief of the Southern Metropolitan Newspaper to reconsider the decision to dismiss Yu Chen from his position.

http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/chinese-editor-dismissed-for-online-comments

2) Restrictive Orders Continue

The Chinese authorities continue to stifle media reporting on a number of cases, including that of blind legal advocate Chen Guangchen and his family’s departure from Beijing to commence studies in the Unites States on May 19, 2012, the demolition of a newly-built school, the death of blind activist Li Wangyang and the charging of former Minister of Railways, Liu Zhijun, with corruption and the removal of his Communist Party membership on May 29, 2012.

http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-urges-free-reporting-of-expenditure-of-donated-funds-in-china

http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/chinese-government-continues-to-censor-reporting-on-activist-chen-guangcheng

http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-condemns-restrictions-on-reporting-of-suspicious-death-of-chinese-activist

3) Foreign Press Accreditation Deliberately Delayed

The IFJ is deeply concerned by reports that a foreign journalist was warned by China’s Foreign Ministry that they had breached unspecified regulations by writing three articles on topics considered sensitive by the Chinese Government. The foreign journalist, who wished to remain anonymous, told IFJ that they believe the warning from the authorities was related to the deliberate delaying of the decision as to whether or not their working visa would be granted. The journalist has been living in Beijing, China for a number of years, and prior to 2011 had encountered no delays in securing a working visa. After having written three articles on sensitive topics, including Chinese artist/activist Ai Weiwei and the Yunnan floods, while waiting on visa approval the journalist was warned by the Foreign Ministry that they had breached the government’s regulation. No further explanation was given. On May 7, Melissa Chan, a female journalist for Al Jezeera English and a Board Member of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC), was expelled from China with an excuse that she too had breached government regulation. On 15 May, Global Times reported that local Beijing authorities had commenced a three months investigative campaign targeting all foreigners who are illegally staying, working and entering Beijing.

http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/chinese-authorities-delay-issuing-visas-to-foreign-journalists

4) Punishment of Online Users Continues

According to China’s Disclosure of Information Law, all level of governments have a duty to disseminate information when there are public misunderstandings or rumours about an issue of public interest. However, China’s government officials continue to prefer to punish those disseminating public information, rather than exercising their own duties of transparency and good governance. Recently, a netizen was punished with 15 days detention by Xinjiang police for allegedly ‘spreading rumours’ about the death of a young boy in Korla on June 5, 2012. According to a Global Times report, on June 5, the spokesperson for the Xinjiang Provincial Government said that after the information was posted online, subsequent comments on the post attacked the Communist Party and the Chinese Government. The spokesperson claimed that the post had caused ‘social disturbance’, however they did not elaborate on the nature of that disturbance. However, the spokesperson did confirm that a boy referred to in the post had died after receiving a beating from his classmates in an unofficial school. The IFJ urges the Central Government of China to amend its relevant laws to incorporate the Johannesburg Principles and demands the release of the detained netizen in Xinjiang.

http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/netizen-in-chinas-xinjiang-province-detained-for-spreading-rumours-online

5) Chinese Central Political Bureau Promotes Enhanced Technology

The Central Committee Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party urged the country to further enhance its technological systems and accelerate the building of a national innovative mechanism, on May 28. Xinhua reported that the members of the committee agreed that building an innovative nation is needed and the technological development faces “both important strategic opportunities and severe challenges” but it did not elaborate further. Prior to that, similar statement were made by Liu Yunshan, Director of China’s Propaganda Department, when he attended a conference to discuss the use of technology to promoting socialism in China. Internet censorship has been increasing since the disclosure of the Bo Xilai scandal in February 2012.

6) Reports of Chongqing Protest Banned

After the scandals of Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun in Chongqing, Central authorities and local Communist party officials have been on high alert. The media has been restricted from reporting on many issues of great local public concern. Since April, many local citizens have been protesting against the Chongqing Government’s plans to merge the affluent Wansheng District with the poorer county of Qijiang. However, the tension did not ease and many shops in the district started to join in the protest, with more than 90% of shops in Wangsheng District closed in protest. According to Radio Free Asia and a South China Morning Post report on June 4, more than 10,000 people protested on the street for more than nine days. Police have been trying to actively supress the protests. Reporting of the protests has been forbidden. On the same day, the Chongqing Propaganda Department demanded all media leaders uphold their political duties to direct all Chinese media to present a positive spin on news reporting of the Chinese Communist Party and socialism.

7) China’s Human Rights Situation Extremely Poor According to Human Rights Watch

On May 24, international NGO Human Rights Watch reported that China is still one of the worse countries for human rights conditions. In its 2012 annual report, Human Rights Watch said that China has flawed elections, restrictions on the rights of freedom of expression, assembly, restrictions on internet and censorship, intimidation of the media and attempts to control or curtail the activities of nongovernmental groups. Iran, North Korea, Syria also shared the same criticism in the report. China’s government rejected the report’s claims. China said the report was ignoring the obvious achievements made by China in protecting its citizen’s rights and freedom, but no specific examples were cited. Regarding the recent number of self-immolations of monks and nuns in Tibetan regions, China denied that they were caused by political restrictions and lack of religious freedom, instead arguing that they were politically-motivated by the ‘clique’ of the Dalai Lama.

8) June 4 Still Taboo for Chinese Government

June 4, and the legacy of the 1989 protests, remains taboo for the Chinese Government. The authorities have continued to do their best to censor all relevant information on the internet and prevent victims’ families from talking to the media every year since 1989. No local media are able to report a single word on the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Online, it is also heavily censored. Some netizens reported that they were unable to access their private online mail box, which is provided through a microblog system. The authorities even extended their hands to non-local media, in violation of new rules introduced during the Olympics for non-local media that allow any Chinese citizen to be interviewed with their consent. In a recent example, a number of Hong Kong and overseas media have said they were prevented from entering a cemetery to interview the families of victims of the 1989 protest crackdown. At the same time, their identity cards were checked by police without reason. Yao Jianfu, author of a biography of Chen Xitong, former Mayor of Beijing, was asked to halt publication of his new book in Hong Kong, and warned not to give any interviews with media on the eve of June 4. The book covered the 1989 incidents in Tiananmen Square. In Hong Kong, some activists complained that they were prevented from entering their facebook accounts to encourage people to attend the candlelight vigil commemorating the massacre on June 4.

9) Hong Kong Lecturer Harassed by Mainland Security Agent

Ying Liang, a Lecturer with the School of Film and Television of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, was allegedly harassed by Chinese security agents in response to his filming a movie called ‘When Night Falls’, which he submitted to a film festival in Korea. The film was based on the story of Yang Jia, a Chinese man who killed and injured a number of policemen in Shanghai after he had been repeatedly beaten by them. Ying told Hong Kong’s media that security agents and police had harassed his and his wife’s family in China, and threatened him with arrest if he returned to Shanghai. Some of the agents even visited Ying in Hong Kong, in order to intimidate him and accuse him of distorting facts and insulting people with his film.

Serenade Woo
IFJ Project Manager
IFJ Asia-Pacific
asiapacific.ifj.org
ifj@ifj-asia.org
ifjchina@ifj-asia.org

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries

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