p2p news / p2pnet: Chinese media outlets, including online sites, will be fined up to $12,500 every time they report on “sudden events” without government permission.

“The law, revealed today in most state-run newspapers, would give government officials a powerful new tool to restrict coverage of mass outbreaks of disease, riots, strikes, accidents and other events that the authorities prefer to keep secret,” says The New York Times.

“Officials in charge of propaganda already exercise considerable sway over the Chinese media, but their power tends to be informal, not codified in law.

“More than 100 million Chinese have access to the Internet, and hundreds of commercially driven newspapers, magazines and television stations provide a much wider selection of news and information than was available in the recent past. As a result, Chinese authorities have also sought fresh ways to curtail reporting on topics and events they consider harmful to social and political stability.”

Editors and journalists, “say they receive constant bulletins from the Propaganda Department forbidding reporting on an ever-expanding list of taboo topics, including ’sudden events’,” says the story, adding:

“Journalists say local authorities are likely to interpret the law broadly, giving officials leeway to restrict coverage of any social and political disturbance that they consider embarrassing, like demonstrations over land seizures, environmental pollution or corruption.”

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Also See:
The New York Times - China Weighs Fines for Reports on ‘Sudden Events’, June 26, 2006

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If you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent website blocking outside of China.

Download it here and feel free to copy the zip and host it yourself so others can download it.

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