Transcript Media coverage: freedom vs. control

Concepts from Last Class
1



Civil society
Pluralism
Corporatism
Debate over “Civil Society”
Pluralist or Corporatist?
2

Civil society

A sphere of independent group activity



“Civil society” implies Pluralism

A system of interest representation in which



Autonomous from the state
Free from state domination
Any group can freely form
To express interests autonomous from state control
Corporatism

A system of interest representation in which


Only certain groups are licensed by the state
Accept limitations on their expression of interests
Practice question
China’s corporatist system of interest representation
involves:







A Official recognition and licensing of approved social
organizations in exchange for limitations on organizations’
demands and activities.
B Requirements for official government sponsorship, registration
with civil affairs officials, and minimum registered capital
requirements
C Permission for multiple, competing social organizations for
students, workers, and other groups to exist in any given
location.
D a and b.
E None of the above.
Correct answer: D
Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Liu Xiaobo
 “God’s
present to China”
 “The internet has made it easier to obtain information,
contact the outside world and submit articles to
overseas media. It is like a super-engine that makes my
writing spring out of a well. The internet is an
information channel that the Chinese dictators cannot
fully censor, allowing people to speak and
communicate, and it offers a platform for spontaneous
organisation.”
China Urges Europeans to Boycott
Nobel Ceremony (NY Times 11/5/10)

Nicholas Bequelin
 “The
police know these people are not going to cause
the collapse of the Communist Party, but this is all about
information control.”
Media expansion
6

TV and radio
 Approx.

Print
 2,035

1,000 TV stations
newpapers (2003) (Liebman, p. 17)
Internet
 300
million internet users (1 in 4 Chinese) as of 2008
 Increase
of 42% over 2007
 Largest # of users in world as of 2008
 400 million users as of 2010
 World’s largest internet market
Debate over VIRTUAL Civil Society:
Pluralist or Corporatist?
7

Is the Internet a virtual civil society?
 How
autonomous?
Internet idealists
vs.
 Internet pessimists

Debate over VIRTUAL Civil Society:
Pluralist or Corporatist?
8

Is the Internet a
virtual civil society?
 The
Google
Controversy
Addressing the debates
9


What is the role of the Internet specifically?
Specific debates:
 Xiao
(2008) argues that print and broadcast media
are severely constrained but that the internet is not.
 “Rising public opinion through online forums and
blogs…are remaking the public agenda.”
 “Newfound freedoms have developed in spite of
stringent government efforts to control the medium…
seriously eroding the party-state censorship
mechanism.”
Addressing the debate
10



What is the role of the media in China’s governing
system?
Can the media perform a watchdog function?
Specific debates:
 Daniel
Lynch (1999), Bruce Gilley (2004) argue that
media commercialization has allowed for the loosening
of the CCP's control
 Zhao Yuezhi (1998), Ashley Esarey (2005) argue that
media commercialization has only changed the forms of
control utilized by the CCP


http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2006/imprisoned_06/imprisoned_06.html
Reporters Without
Borders’ 2005
Worldwide Press
Freedom Index places
China at 159 out of 167
countries
358 TV stations and
2,119 newspapers
A Banner Too Far:
Bao Tong on the 17th Party Congress (Oct ’07)
12
He wrote this essay, broadcast by Radio Free Asia's Mandarin service,
from his Beijing home, where he has lived under house arrest
since his release from jail in the wake of the 1989 student movement:


“Why is it that the crucial roles played by the media and the creative arts,
that of exposing the dark side of our society, are now regarded as the
epitome of treason, and are being choked off, one by one? Why has the
publications inspection system which caused Marx such a headache been
turned by Communist Party leaders into the art of maintaining power?
These and so many other similar questions are studiously avoided by the
documents of the 17th Party Congress. They aren't raised, they aren't
analyzed, and they aren't answered. The documents don't answer the
question of how to turn this country into a genuine republic, not just in name
only; neither do they address the question of how to ensure that ordinary
citizens genuinely have the right to exercise state power.
13
Bringing evidence to the debates
Case 1: Wenchuan Earthquake, May 12, 2008
Case 2: Sun Zhigang
Case 3: “Tabloid” journalism
Political Aspects of Media Coverage
following the Wenchuan Earthquake

Media coverage
 Freedom

vs. control
Nationalism
 Double-edged

sword
Trust in government and political legitimacy
 Central
vs. local governments
Media coverage: freedom vs. control
following the Wenchuan Earthquake

Unprecedented “freedom” in media coverage of
earthquake: How did it come about?
 Natural—not
man-made disaster
 Sheer magnitude of the event
 Initial
break-down of standard controls
 Subsequent loosening
 Reassertion of control
Media coverage: freedom vs. control
following the Wenchuan Earthquake

Media outlets under dual controls
 Chinese
Communist Party—sets content guidelines
 Politburo
 Propaganda
 Chinese
 State
Department
Government—controls licensing
Council
 General Administration of Press and Publication
Media coverage: freedom vs. control
following the Wenchuan Earthquake

Jobs on the line
 Personal
 Editors

removed
Beijing News 2005
 Papers

responsibility for failures in censorship
closed
“Freezing Point” 2006
 Only one instance in immediate earthquake
aftermath
New Travel Weekly (Chongqing)


Publication suspended
Editor removed
Media coverage: freedom vs. control following the
Wenchuan Earthquake

“Propaganda circulars”
 Specific
instructions on how to handle sensitive topics or
specific news stories
 Content
from New China News Agency (ex: train derailment)
 May
12: “No media is allowed to send reporters to the
disaster zone.”
 Editors
recalled reporters or did not dispatch reporters
 Some reporters went as individuals  no byline


 May
Oriental Morning Post (Shanghai) 东方早报
Others  led to “collective resistance” to prohibition
14: “Reporters going to the disaster zone must
move about with rescue team.”
Media coverage: freedom vs. control

Reassertion of controls
 Party-state
promoted
 Celebration
of Premier Wen
Jiabao
 People’s Daily front page 1
week later

Government authority in
quake zone
 Liberation
Daily front page
May 21, 2008

Get back to work
 Sensitive
issues suppressed
 Allegations
of corruption in
school construction
 Violent protests against local
governments by parents of
Media coverage: freedom vs. control
following the Wenchuan Earthquake

Role of the Internet
 Unseemly
that the
Olympic torch should
continue in the
immediate aftermath
of the earthquake
 Policy reversed
Nationalism in the media: Double-edged sword

Tremendous national spirit
“Go China!” 加油中国!
 Ex: Donations



Money, blood, volunteer
efforts
Anti-foreign sentiment

MacDonald’s
Criticized for paltry donation
to relief effort
 Minister of Commerce Chen
Deming



Defending foreign
corporations in China
Note also internet criticisms
of Chinese corporations
Attempts to Promote Trust in Government and
Political Legitimacy through the Media


5月13日 “我是温家宝爷爷，孩子们一定要挺住…”
May 13 “ I’m Grandpa Wen Jiabao. Children [you] must
hold on…”
Trust in the
central
government
Distrust in
local
government
Bringing Evidence to the Debates
Case: Xiamen PX Factory
Xiamen PX Factory


PX Chemical Factory—relocated
Citizens in Xiamen
 Worried
about air pollution, smokestacks, poisonous gas
 Let’s collectively take a walk, maybe we will meet a
mayor who listens.
Bringing Evidence to the Debates
Case: Shanghai Maglev Extension
Shanghai Maglev Extension Case





Citizens protest maglev
extension January 6, 2008
 Middle class homeowners
Texting: collectively taking a
walk 集体散步
Blogging
Video posted on internet
 Subsequently banned by
Internet police
Southern Metropolis Daily
(newspaper)
 only Chinese media that
reported this incident
Shanghai Maglev Extension Case

Citizen blog post
 Mr. Zhou [a member of Shanghai
government's evaluation team]
mentioned ICNIRP (International
Commission on Non-Ionizing
Radiation Protection) and said
that this organization has
reported that this is harmless and
that is harmless. This is really
strange. We ordinary citizens
can also read English. What we
have seen in ICNRP documents
details all kinds of harmful
effects of electric and magnetic
radiation. A lot of research,
including biological research and
volunteered human subjects
research, all showed enormous
risks in such an environment.
Shanghai Maglev Extension Case

Southern Metropolis Daily
 ‘Two days ago, the plan for the
western extended line of the
Maglev project began to be
publicized. In order to
peacefully express themselves,
residents along the line came
to People’s Square and
expressed their opinion about
Maglev line passing through
their own neighborhood using
the method of “taking a walk”
and “shopping.” Citizens say:
this is one way to express
opinions.’
Shanghai Maglev Extension Case

Shanghai government’s
official media site: EastNet

“There are people who
want Shanghai in chaos.
Now, some foreigners are
playing up the Maglev
project, spreading some
malicious rumors. Some
domestic people also follow
them to make a fuss.
Goodhearted people must
not to fall into their trap.”
Shanghai Maglev Extension Case


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUXGiuydqiM&
feature=player_embedded
Project withdrawn
 Also
resisted by Ministry of Railways
31
Bringing Evidence to the Debates
Case 2: Sun Zhigang
Sun Zhigang case
Landmark event
now memorialized
in the unofficial
“Museum of Peasant
Labor” in Beijing.
“He died for us.”
Sun Zhigang case

Background
 Household
registration
system (internal
passport system)
 Rural migrant workers
require temporary
resident permits to
reside in cities
 Apartheid like system
 Abused by employers
Sun Zhigang
34




Personal details
27-year college graduate in graphic design from
Wuhan who went to Guangzhou to work
Picked up by police upon entering Internet café
because he didn’t have a temporary residence
permit or ID with him
Called friend to bring his ID
Sun Zhigang
35

“Custody and Repatriation (收容遣送) Center
 In
principle for homeless beggars
 Authorized
 Used
by State Council regulations
to harass migrant workers
 Extort
fines
 Detain in squalid conditions
Sun Zhigang
36

Circumstances
 Sun
beaten to death in detention center (March 2003)
 Likely

for challenging detention
Media as (extra-legal) recourse
 Parents
notified of death three days later
 Parents personally sought explanation from government
bureaus in Guangzhou—with no results
 Went to Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolitan
Daily) when they couldn’t get answers
 Reported
story (April 2003)
Sun Zhigang
37

Internet as (extra-legal) recourse
 Web
sites picked up story
 Led to outrage on bulletin boards, in chat rooms

Public discussion of “Custody and Repatriation
System”
Sun Zhigang
38

Citizen petition to National People’s Congress on
constitutionality
 three
individuals with Ph.D. degrees in law from Beijing
University
 re-examine the constitutionality of the 1982 “Measures
for the Custody of Repatriation of Vagrant Beggars in
the Cities.”
 Administrative


Punishment Law, Legislature Law
deprivation of a citizen’s freedom can be done only by laws
passed by the National People’s Congress or its Standing
Committee.
Not State Council or provincial regulations
Shourong Qiansong system abolished and replaced by
milder Measures for Internment and Deportation of
Urban Vagrants and Beggars—not for migrant workers
What is behind the abolition?

Media and internet!
C&R regulations abolished June 2003
However, NO reference to constitutionality
Sun Zhigang
41

Subsequent results
 Those
directly involved in Sun Zhigang’s beating death
were tried in criminal court and sentenced to death
(sentence commuted to life in prison)
 Editors of Southern Metropolis Daily (南方都市报）
subsequently removed from their positions on trumped
up corruption charges
Bringing Evidence to the Debates
Regulatory Framework
Background: Symbolic commitment to press
freedom, free expression
43

PRC Constitution


Fundamental Rights and Duties of Citizens
Article 35


Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the
press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Article 19


Freedom to seek, receive, impart information and ideas
China has signed but not ratified

What difference does this make—if any?

“Village Tyrant”
 Southern Weekend reference to int’l coventions p. 61
Corporatist Controls:
Entities Involved in Internet Regulation
44












• Central Propaganda Department
• Department of Commerce
• Department of Telecommunications
• General Administration of Press and Publications
• Ministry of Culture
• Ministry of Information Industry
• Ministry of Public Security
• Public Security Bureau
• State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television
• State Council
• State Council Information Agency
• State Secrets Bureau
Corporatist and other controls
45

Corporatist controls on the media and internet
 Standard
controls
 Party
membership
 Nomenklatura of the Central Propaganda Department
(replicated at lower levels)

CCTV, People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency
 Double-hatting


Central Propaganda Department instructions
Propaganda circulars (PCs), specific instructions on
how to handle sensitive topics or specific news stories
for the media.

Content must come directly from national media
organizations like Xinhua, People’s Daily, or CCTV
Corporatist and other controls
46
General Administration of Press and Publication
Registration
Newspapers, Internet Service Providers
 Government sponsor—held responsible
 Provide identity papers for editorial and technical staff
 Reporters
 Examination and licensing by state
Corporatist and other controls
47
Policing
Special police unit
Fines, shutdowns, detentions,
arrests
*stiff fines for violations
* more than 60 Chinese
serving prison sentences for
Internet-based political
crimes (HRW ’05)
A public security official examines the identity of a
Chinese surfer at an internet café (Lagerkvist 2010)
Corporatist and other controls
48
Content


Self monitoring
 Must monitor content, prevent publication of prohibited material,
remove and report any prohibited materials
Restricted content and likely targets
 Threatens the unity, sovereignty, geographical integrity of the state
 Uighurs, Indep East Turkestan; Tibetans; Taiwanese
 Reveals state secrets, threatens state security, or harms national
interests
 state regulation
 Propagates superstitution
 falungong
 Harms racial unity 
 Threatens social morality  pornography
Corporatist and other controls
49

Limitations

“state secrets”



1997 Penal Code


Vague, ill-defined
Allows government discretion, manipulation
Article 105: penalizing those subverting the political power of the
state
Public Security Administration Punishment Law


Article 25: detention of citizens spreading rumors that disturb public
order
Jinan flood (Summer 2007)
Corporatist and other controls

General Administration of Press and Publication
 government's
main regulator of the press
 March 10, 2010



restrict media coverage of politically sensitive events
limit uncontrolled news reporting on China's fast-growing Internet.
new qualification exam for aspiring journalists
 test
them on their knowledge of
 Chinese
Communist Party journalism" and
 Marxist views of news.
 Journalists who do not pass the exam will not be allowed to
apply for a job in the news industry.
Media commercialization: Incentives to
push the boundaries or to self-censor?
51

Financial incentives
 Institutional
 Circulation,
 Individual
advertising
journalist
 Salary
linked publications (must get past censors)
 Regular re-licensing

Relationship to censors
52
Bringing Evidence to the Debates
Case 3: “Tabloid” journalism
Media as the mouthpiece of the Party
1.
2.
3.
News media must reflect the Party’s guiding
ideology;
News media must disseminate the Party’s
programs, policies, and directives;
News media must accept the Party’s leadership
and subscribe to the Party’s organizational
principles and press policies.
Four Approaches to Censorship

Legal

Political

Economic

Technical
Economic Approach to Censorship

Commercialization
What means for improving the effectiveness of party
propaganda and regime legitimacy?
 Print media at the city, provincial, and central level
reorganized into media conglomerates or media “groups” financially strengthen the media industry and politically
consolidate leadership.


Monetary incentives:

performance bonuses for getting stories published (past
censors)
Economic Approach to Censorship

Commercialization

Incentives to push the boundaries


Labor disputes, corruption, and health epidemics, etc. SELL PAPERS
Publish “muck-racking” stories about other jurisdictions

Would have to attract higher level party attention to shut down
Hypothesis


Due to commercialization, the Chinese press has
been more daring and critical within certain
boundaries.
Semi-commercial papers
 more

commercial  more critical
Official papers
 less
commercial  less critical
Methodology


Representative sample of
newspaper coverage of
labor disputes to test
hypothesis
Shandong Province in
2000
Official
Shandong Workers Daily
Shandong Legal Daily
Semi-commercial
Qilu Evening Newspaper
Methodology II

Content Analysis (quantitative)

Portrayal of institutions
1.
2.
3.

Labor Bureau (勞動局)
Arbitration Committee (仲裁委員會 )
Court (法院)
Discourse Analysis (Qualitative)

2 articles (one from semi-commercial with negative
portrayal and one from official with positive
portrayal of institutions) for close readings
Preliminary Findings: Labor Bureau (勞動局)
Case Processing Summary
Cases
Missing
N
Percent
0
.0%
Valid
N
OfficalorSemi * Ldjportr
Positive
portrayal by
Count
semicommercial
(11.76%) OfficalorSemi
Percent
100.0%
176
Total
N
176
Percent
100.0%
Offica lorSem i * Ldjportr Crosstabula tion
Ldjport r
1
0
1
Total
2
4
4
8
3
3
3
6
9
6
6
12
21
129
150
Total
34
142
176
Negative
portrayal by
semicommercial
(8.82%)
Chi-Square Te sts
Positive
portrayal by
official
(2.82%)
Pearson Chi-Square
Lik elihood Ratio
Linear-by-Linear
As soc iation
N of Valid Cases
Value
18.425 a
15.230
17.985
3
3
As ymp. Sig.
(2-sided)
.000
.002
1
.000
df
176
a. 4 c ells (50.0%) have ex pec ted c ount les s than 5. The
minimum expected count is 1.16.
Negative
portrayal by
official
(2.32%)
Discourse Analysis:齊魯晚報
Will the Boat Sink the Water?
62



Investigative journalism in Anhui Province
Nov ’03 magazine Dangdai
Dec ’03 People’s Literature Pub. House
Huge media sensation
 Banned after 250,000 copies sold
 Millions more sold illicitly




Chen Guidi forced to resign
Sued by local official for libel
Interviews: Peasant authors Chen Guidi and
Wu Chuntao RFA Unplugged, May 23, 2007
Will the Boat Sink the Water?
63

Will the Boat Sink the Water? “Village Tyrant” 1998

Initial role of media

County TV, provincial newspapers


“manslaughter” in “civic dispute”
“The Press Arrive at Last”

Anhui branch of Xinhua News Agency




“These articles finally set the true facts of the killings in Zhang Village before the
public, defeating all the cover-up attempts of the Guzhen County and Bengbu
Municipal party authorities.” p. 57
China Central Television
Southern Weekend
Democracy and Law

“With the media’s attention now focused on the crime and numerous articles
appearing in the national press, the case of peasants being killed because they
wanted to audit the village books could not be covered up any longer. Only then
did things take a turn for the better.” p. 61
Additional information
64


Keller
Human Rights in China Trends Bulletin
 “Media
censorship intensifies with continued
crackdowns,” February 2007

Council on Foreign Relations
 “Media

Censorship in China”, September ‘06
Freedom House
 "Speak
No Evil: Mass Media Control in Contemporary
China," February 2006
Two Crises Highlight China's Social
Media Struggles



Two Crises Highlight China's Social Media Struggles
by LOUISA LIM
“Weibo now has become the public sphere of Chinese
politics. It has become a market of rumors.”
- Michael Anti, a columnist who closely tracks the
Twitter-like service
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/30/151670969/af
ter-dissident-escapes-china-clamps-down-on-socialmedia