Rise of the blog prompts China self-censor pledge
Saturday, 15 April 2006
Print
Email
State-run internet news sites have stepped up their attempts to guard the Great Firewall of China by responding to a call for tighter control of the web with pledges to "self-censor".
The websites of China's main publications, including the state news agency Xinhua, China Daily and the People's Daily, agreed to attack "indecency" on the web. The language of the reports was fervently patriotic as Xinhua reported how 11 news websites had "vehemently" supported a initiative by the state-run media to censor themselves. "Chinese websites are capable and confident of resisting indecent internet content," it said.
China has 700,000 portals and 111 million internet users and the government is said to have 40,000 officials monitoring the web.
Bloggers are the current focus of government attentions. Literate and opinionated, with names like Anti and Massage Crème, blogs are the most widely available form of free expression that China has ever seen.
"Before the internet, there was no public space to articulate individual political opinion. What was one to do? Write a letter to a newspaper? Or publish your own book?" said Roland Soong, author of the influential Chinese language blog, EastSouthWestNorth.
Premier Wen Jiabao's comments on the internet after this year's annual parliament shows how Beijing acknowledges the importance of the web for boosting China's interests.
"Websites should convey correct information, rather than mislead people and bring negative impact on the social order," he said.
The blog of Michael Anti, an outspoken political blogger, was shut in December and writers have been jailed over the sensitive content of emails and postings.
The official government view is that the blogosphere offers a great opportunity but can also be a hothouse of subversive thought. The Communist Party's Propaganda Department has stepped up operations at "Office 1106", an organisation which trawls cyberspace for subversion.
"Blogs are an important part of a sea change to a more open society. But will they bring revolution? I don't think so," said Jeremy Goldkorn, who runs Danwei, a website about media and advertising in China. "Most people don't really care about censorship. My impression is that the blocks are seen as an annoyance by most Chinese internet users, not as a huge problem," said Mr Goldkorn.
Earlier this month, 14 Beijing-based portals, including Yahoo's Chinese website, Sina.com, Sohu.com and Baidu.com, said they were blocking "unhealthy" content. Xinhua said the websites had pledged to play a leading role in self-censoring internet content in line with President Hu Jintao's concept of socialist morality, called the "Eight Honours and Disgraces".
"We will make the internet a vital publisher of scientific theories ... and promote the building of a socialist harmonious society," the websites pledged.
Another group which has agreed to censor itself in China, Google, expects substantial revenue growth in China. The internet giant came under fire in February from human rights activists for agreeing to block links about sensitive topics, such as the 1989 crackdown on demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Google executives have said that opting for self-censorship was the lesser of two evils for the firm's progress in China. And the company has opted for a suitably poetic name for Google in China - it will be called Gu Ge, which means "song of the harvest of grain".
The People's Daily said: "The mainstream of China's websites are positive. Only a handful of portals are sabotaging the interests of the people and the country.
