China to Impose News Reporting Mandates

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, ChinaChina’s top print media censor is to introduce a new qualification exam for aspiring journalists this year in a push to tighten up on control of media. China has limited to an even greater extent, the abilities of journalists to report in an effort to further retrain freedom of the press, and rights of expression China will toughen requirements for reporters by launching a new certification system. Now, the Chinese government has implemented a new training system which requires journalists to be familiar with Marxist and communist theories of news.

Chinese officials already routinely censor journalists, but Chinese media has become less restricted in recent years as they have gained more revenue from independent sources as a result of advertising. Government censors keep a tight grip on news content and routinely ban reporting on issues deemed too politically sensitive or destabilizing, and many media outlets in China serve as mouthpieces for the state. Recent efforts, however, have sought to hamper such an outlet.

One theory of the reporting system advocates that the media serve as communicative reinforcement of the government’s political views rather than as a watchdog to report non-bias news about the country’s leadership and international happenings.

It is believed that the reporting initiative is only directed towards journalists operating on the mainland.

Often times, journalists are not only restricted in what they can cover for news stories, they are punished. For instance, in 2008, Li Changqing, a journalist awarded with the World Association of Newspapers Golden Pen of Press Freedom for reporting on an outbreak of dengue fever in Fuzhou province in 2004 before authorities had admitted it. Chinese authorities imposed Li with a jail sentence, and was forced to spend three years in prison.

According to Li, “Comrades who are going to be working on journalism’s front lines must learn theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics and be taught Marx’s view on news, plus media ethics and Communist Party discipline on news and propaganda.”

Despite the current fury by the government to fully control Chinese culture by limiting news sources to primarily all communist based reporting, several journalists are voicing their opinion before all non-communist communication mediums are closed off.

For more information, please see:

Chicago TribuneChina orders reporters trained in Marxist, communist theory to weed out politically incorrect – 11 March 2010

People’s Daily – Minister: China officials must report assets – 11 March 2010

The GuardianChina orders journalists to retrain in communist theory – 11 March 2010

South China Morning Post –  Journalists must face new exam – 11 March 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive