7 June 2006
AUTHORITIES PUT SQUEEZE ON MEDIA COVERAGE OF RURAL PROTESTS
As China's economic boom continues at breakneck speed, widening unrest is spreading in rural areas as villagers stage protests against corruption, land seizures and environmental degradation, reports the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The government recorded 87,000 such incidents in 2005.
Unfortunately, information about the protests rarely reaches the public, a consequence of one of the Communist Party's biggest crackdowns on local media since the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations.
In a report written for CPJ's magazine "Dangerous Assignments", Kristin Jones writes that authorities are tightening their control of traditional media coverage of rural protests by increasing restrictions and instructing local propaganda departments to increase pressure on editors.
However, the vast availability of new technologies such as cell phones, digital video cameras and the Internet is making it increasingly difficult for authorities to suppress news of the protests, says Jones. With the traditional media severely restrained, China's emerging civil society is taking up the task of getting information out to citizens and to the international community.
To read the report, visit: http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2006/DA_spring_06/china/china_06.html
Visit these links:
- Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/01/china13489.htm
- Freedom House Report "Speak No Evil": http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/special_report/33.pdf
- RSF Report on China's Propaganda Department: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15172
- Human Rights in China: http://iso.hrichina.org/public/index
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