(IPI/IFEX) – The following is an IPI press release: On the eve of the International Press Institute’s World Congress in Taiwan, the IPI is launching a detailed report illustrating the deteriorating governmental respect for freedom of expression in China. Growing Media Repression and Self-Restraint in China Approaching three highly sensitive anniversaries – 40 years of […]
(IPI/IFEX) – The following is an IPI press release:
On the eve of the International Press Institute’s World Congress in Taiwan,
the IPI is launching a detailed report illustrating the deteriorating
governmental respect for freedom of expression in China.
Growing Media Repression and Self-Restraint in China
Approaching three highly sensitive anniversaries – 40 years of Chinese
occupation in Tibet, 50 years of Communist rule, and 10 years since the
Tienanmen massacre – the Chinese government has issued new regulations to
further limit the possibility of people expressing their opinions. The
population, however, has not reacted and China appears more stable than
ever, confident in its re-discovered nationalism.
After presenting some illusory signs of improvement over the past years,
China has tightened its grip on the media and now is one of the most
repressive societies in the world with 13 journalists in prison and
countless cases of harassment and censorship.
Insisting on the uniqueness of Asian culture, the Chinese government has
dismissed the function of the media as a public watchdog that operates as a
basic check against abuse of official power as a purely “Western” concept.
The government is free to act in its own interests, ignoring the rights of
the people.
As long as the world chooses to remain blind to China’s abuses of human
rights, greatly impressed by its economic power, Beijing sees no reason to
change its policies. And as long as dissenting opinions are not allowed in
the country, and the Chinese public themselves are dazzled by nationalist
propaganda, there will be no limit to the human rights abuses.
As the members of the International Press Institute meet in Taiwan for IPI’s
World Congress and 48th General Assembly, this report presents a bleak
reminder of the policies and practices adopted in mainland China. Growing
Media Repression and Self-Restraint in China is a 28-page IPI report which
provides an analysis of the development of the Chinese media in the era of
Jiang Zemin; of the systems used by the government to control them; and of
the geo-political conditions that have allowed the Chinese government to
muzzle freedom of expression without losing legitimacy.
Growing Media Repression and Self-Restraint in China
Barbara Trionfi, International Press Institute, May 1999.
Full report available on http://www.freemedia.at
