19 April 2006
BUSH URGED TO HIGHLIGHT FREE EXPRESSION AT SUMMIT TALKS
Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have called on U.S. President George W. Bush to put freedom of expression on the agenda when he meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington, D.C. for bilateral talks on 20 April 2006.
In letters to President Bush, Human Rights Watch and CPJ have highlighted China's poor record on free expression and press freedom, and called for the release of jailed dissidents.
Human Rights Watch says Chinese authorities have intensified efforts to restrict information within China in the past year. "The vaguely defined crimes of subversion, endangering state security, leaking state secrets, and endangering public order enable Chinese authorities to arbitrarily detain, indict, try, and sentence opinion-makers, journalists, bloggers, activists, and dissidents," the group says.
Often the so-called crimes involve criticisms of government or Communist Party policy or dissemination of opinion and news that authorities want to keep hidden from the public.
Human Rights Watch also called attention to the complicity of U.S. companies in the Chinese government's efforts to censor information on the Internet.
It cited the case of Yahoo's involvement in helping Chinese authorities jail journalist Shi Tao. Yahoo identified Shi Tao as the sender of an e-mail to an overseas news website that divulged information about press censorship in China.
CPJ says since taking office in 2003, President Hu has overseen the most severe crackdown on the media since the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
"Propaganda authorities have increased the number of topics off limits for media coverage, tightened official censorship rules, and intensified restrictions on the Internet. They have also continued their policy of jailing journalists who offend government officials or cross lines set by censors," the group says.
At the end of 2005, CPJ documented at least 32 journalists imprisoned for their work in China, more than any other country. CPJ urged President Bush to raise three of the most recent cases - Li Jianping, Wu Hao and Li Changqing.
RSF raised concerns about censorship in China in an open letter to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who met President Hu on 18 April in Seattle at the start of Hu's visit to the United States.
RSF said it disapproved of Miscrosoft's decision to censor the Chinese version of its blog software MSN Spaces. The software automatically rejects search strings such as "4 June" (the date of the Tiananmen Square massacre) or "human rights in China." Microsoft also shut down the blog of a popular Chinese blogger, Michael Anti, following pressure from the Chinese authorities.
In recent weeks, Beijing has imposed measures to tighten its control over state media. The General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) has launched a crackdown on "illegal foreign publications" and ordered a freeze on the granting of publishing licences to joint ventures in the media sector. The GAPP's new policy aims both to boost the foreign sales of Chinese magazines and to reduce the influx of foreign publications, reflecting a concern about their impact on the Chinese public.
In a further restriction, on 11 April, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) ordered Chinese television stations not to use footage offered by international news agencies. Local TV stations were told to use only images produced or approved by authorised Chinese agencies. The SARFT accused "certain international news agencies of selling images with clearly political intentions" and called for more "political discipline."
The SARFT also announced that local authorities would be required to verify the content of TV series. Scripts will have to be approved every month to prevent "errors" of a political and historical nature.
RSF notes that the new directive follows a ban on a programme called "Supergirl" on Hunan provincial television, which was inspired by the U.S. pop music talent show "Star Academy" and allowed viewers to vote for the candidate of their choice. The state-owned "China Daily" said the programme illustrated "the perversions of an unprepared democracy."
Visit these links:
- Human Rights Watch: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/04/05/china13132.htm- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/protests/06ltrs/asia/china17apr06pl.html- RSF Letter to Gates: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=17113- Freedom House Report: http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/special_report/33.pdf- IPI World Press Freedom Review: http://tinyurl.com/lt556- U.S. Congressional Committee Hearing on Internet Censorship in China: http://boss.streamos.com/real/hir/56_af021506.smi- Internet Filtering in China: http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/china/- Where's Hu Now? http://www.ir2008.org/whereshu/- Human Rights in China: http://www.hrichina.org- China Digital Times: http://chinadigitaltimes.net/
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