Censorship And Propaganda In Chinese Media - Research Paper Example

Censorship And Propaganda In Chinese Media Table of contents 1. Introduction : Page 3 2. Thesis : Page 4 3. Media and internet censorship in China : Page 5 a. Censorship on television : Page 5 b. Censorship on internet : Page 5 c. Censorship on democracy : Page 6 d. Censorship on health related issues : Page 7 e. Censorship on educational sites : Page 8 f. Censorship on print media : Page 8 g. Censorship on Tibet and Taiwan issues : Page 9 h. Censorship on entertainment materials : Page 11 i. Censorship on religion and religious materials : Page 11 j. Tiananmen massacre and censorship : Page 12 4. The role of American companies in ensuring censorship in China : Page 13 5. Censorship related Chinese strategies to exploit foreign markets : Page 13 6. Future of censorship in China : Page 15 7. Conclusions : Page 15 8. References : Page 17 Introduction Freedom of media and internet is one of the hottest topics of discussion everywhere in the world because of its importance in providing the public, right information at the right time. The right to know is one of the basic requirements for a civilized society. Man is a free animal and hence he has the freedom of making independent beliefs and spreading it. For that purpose he needs the right information about his own society and also about the external world. Majority of the information is obtained through media and internet and hence these sources must be free from any control or regulation in order to get the right information. In most of the democratic countries media can function as an independent segment while in communist led countries and other autocratic countries, the freedom of expression is limited and hence medias and internet are controlled or regulated. These countries are actually afraid of the consequences to their regime if the right information reaches the people. The former communist led Soviet Union is one of the best examples from where we got lot of incidents in which the public were tortured in order to conserve communism, after the destruction of the Soviet Union. The Perestroika and Glasnost like policies implemented by former Soviet president Michael Gorbachov has finally made the public free from the iron fists of communist regime especially freedom of expression is concerned. Sometimes medias will utilize their freedom for taking undue advantages also. As we know most of the medias are biased towards certain political parties or ideologies and hence they will manipulate the information for their own advantages. In those circumstances, the public will get contradictory information from different sources and hence they will be confused about the authenticity of information. China is one of the prominent communist led regimes in the world at present and hence the censorship activities and control over medias and internet in China is debated among other countries. The current globalization policies have opened the doors widely open for the business community and hence China was very keen in utilizing it. But for that purpose China should provide ample freedom for medias and internet in China in order to allow foreign business groups to operate freely in their soil. China is one of the toughest nations in the world as far as the freedom for Medias and internet is concerned. The communist led regime in China is been making every attempt to control the media in their country in order to block the leakage of unhealthy things happening in their country. “If an Internet user in China searches for the word "persecution," he or she is likely to come up with a link to a blank screen that says "page cannot be displayed."The same is true of searches for "Tibetan independence," "democracy movements" or stranger sounding terms such as "oriental red space time"” (Wiseman, 2008) The volatile political issues related to Taiwan and Tibet may not be retrievable if a person in China attempted surf through the internet. China has got one of the most modern internet filtering systems which enable them to control the information on internet if somebody try to access it from the Chinese territory. The top 10 Google results using the key words "Tibet," "Taiwan China" and "equality" were all blocked, as were eight of the top 10 results using "democracy China" and "dissident China." (Collins, 2002) The control of media and censorship of internet form one of the most important abuse and violation of Human Rights: freedom of speech and of information. Indeed, this control the Chinese government places on their medias enables them to ensure communism and their political paradigm. Thus, medias in China can be regarded as a mean, a tool of propaganda. Thesis China often argues that it is propaganda by western countries that the Chinese media is under tight censorship. They claim that Chinese media is as free as any other foreign media and any agencies can function freely in China. On the other hand the western countries argue that Chinese claims are not at all right and they accuse China that it needs to sell its products in global markets and for that purpose they are just pretending that the medias are free in China. Media and internet censorship in China Censorship on television “China Central Television, or CCTV, the main state-run network, has stopped the live broadcast of the inaugural address of president Obama at the very next the moment when Mr. Obama mentioned “communism”. (WONG & ANSFIELD, 2009) Even the live telecast was blocked by the Chinese authorities since they feared that Mr. Obama may mention some anti communist opinions. They were afraid that Obama may mention the human right violations in China under the communist rule. The Chinese authorities don’t have belief even in formalities. They could have transmitted the address and could have critically analyzed it later if they found anything wrong in the speech. They could have explain or clarify their stand later if Obama says something against their political ideology or beliefs. But they were not patient enough to hear what others were saying and they were adamant about their beliefs and ideologies. Lot of Americans and people from other counties staying or working in China were eager to hear the inaugural address presented by Obama. Censorship on internet Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman (Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School) has conducted a study regarding the internet sites blocked in China. Their findings are given below. Our main testing examined 203,217 web sites drawn from categories other than sexually explicit content. We seeded this list of sites from multiple sources. For example, we extracted from Yahoo all web sites in certain categories (including those specifically about education, entertainment, news, major world governments, and politics) as well as all sites in the non-English regional versions of Yahoo that specifically concern China and Taiwan. We conducted searches on terms likely to yield sensitive results and thus candidates for blocking, both in English and in Chinese, using the Google search engine, and placed the top results into our list of URLs to test. We tracked approximately 5,000 additional sites submitted to our Real-Time Testing System through September 2002, and we received email suggestions of further sites to test. The result of these data sources was a list of 203,217 distinct host names. Using the definition of "blocked" specified above, we found that a total of 18,931 of these sites (9.3%) were blocked in China. Given the large number of sites blocked, we have organized our listing of specific blocked pages into highlights -- some blocked pages that are well known or otherwise of possible interest -- followed by the full list. Where available, each page's listing includes its HTML title, its META keywords and description, and its Yahoo Directory and Google Directory classifications. These details are as retrieved in November 2002. (Zittrain & Edelman, 2003) Censorship on democracy Apart from sexually explicit material sites, China does not like sites related to democracy and freedom also. Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman have reported that out of the top 100 sites returned by Google in response to a search for "democracy china," 40 were found to be blocked, while 37 "dissident china" sites were blocked, 32 were blocked for "freedom china," and 30 for "justice china." Even the sites of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Hong Kong Voice of Democracy, and the Direct Democracy Centre, sites were also blocked in China as per Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman. In China’s opinion spreading of democracy in China is a hidden agenda for the western countries like America and Britain. They are afraid of democracy since they feel that under democracy, people of China will get more rights and hence they will start to question the massacres under the communist regime. Moreover they are sure that any political changes in China may retard the process of China’s progress towards becoming a super power to challenge the American supremacy. Censorship on health related issues Not only democracy and sex related sites, but even the health related sites are also cannot be accessed easily in China. “Of the top 100 Google results for "hunger china," 24 were blocked; for "famine china" 23; for "AIDS china" 21; for "sex china" 19; for "disease china" 14. Specific blocked sites included the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the Internet Mental Health reference, and the Health in China research project. We found blocking of a total of 139 sites listed in Yahoo's Health directory categories and subcategories.” (Zittrain & Edelman, 2003) The severe diseases like AIDS and SARS has killed many people in China and the external world has not have much statistics regarding such things in China because of the strict censorship upon the media and internet. China wanted to hide those statistics from others for the face saving purposes. They wanted to introduce China as a socially, culturally, politically and economically stable country among others. The knowledge about the immense casualties in China due to such casualties may destroy the confidence of citizens of China in their political regime and may result in internal agitations. Censorship on educational sites Some educational sites were also blocked in Chinese territory by the government. “Blocked sites included a number of well-known institutions of higher education, including the primary web servers operated by Caltech, Columbia, MIT, and the University of Virginia. Blocked non-university sites included the Learning Channel, the Islamic Virtual School, the Music Academy of Zheng, and the web sites of dozens of public and private primary and secondary schools. We further found evidence of blocking of 696 sites listed in Yahoo's Education directory categories and subcategories” (Zittrain & Edelman, 2003) China is afraid of spreading religion in their territory since as per communist principles religion is not good for the society. The spreading of religion will awaken the moral standards of the people which China thinks that may be harmful to the communist led regime. Belief in religion or God may force the people to think in terms of religious principles which will definitely against the principles of communism. Amnesty has also reported that many people has been arrested detention for disseminating information about the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) over the Internet (Censorship in China, overview, 2008) The Chinese government wants to hide the exact casualties and the causes of SARS diseases from the international community since they feared that the exact details and causes of the disease may reveal the inefficiency of the communist led government. They were afraid that the awareness about the exact reasons of SARS and the failed measures taken by the government to control SARS may result in another human agitation in China just like the Tainan men Square incident Censorship on Print media Most of the News and media related organizations from other countries especially from capitalist countries are also banned in China. BBC news, CNN, Time Magazine, PBS, Miami Herald and the Philadelphia Inquirer are banned in China as per the studies conducted by Zittrain & Edelman, in 2003. These news agencies or the media groups are anti communist organizations as per the beliefs of Chinese government. They always look suspiciously towards the western media groups since they fear that these media groups knowingly or unknowingly trying to inject democratic values among Chinese people. All these medias are belonging to democratic countries and hence most of their media contents will be polarized towards democratic values and hence spreading of such things in China may brainwash the Chinese community as per the Chinese authorities. Censorship on Tibet and Taiwan issues China does not like the internet sites from some governments in Asia and beyond. “Government sites of Taiwan and Tibet were targeted specifically. Also blocked was the entirety of uscourts.gov, including the many federal district and appellate courts in the United States, as well as the United Kingdom's Court Service and Israel's Judicial Authority. The communication sites of various governments were blocked, including the United States' Voice of America, as well as travel sites from Australia, Israel, Korea, Switzerland, and Wales. Government military department sites were also blocked, including the US Department of Defense, though others remained reachable (the CIA).” (Zittrain & Edelman, 2003) China thinks that these governmental sites will provide ample information about the functioning of governments and other systems like judiciary, parliament and executive in other countries to the Chinese people. Such information will force the Chinese citizens to compare their system under communist regime with other systems under democratic regimes. These comparisons may result in increased dissatisfaction among the Chinese population regarding the limited freedom of expression in their country which the Chinese authorities think may result in people’s agitations against the communist regime. Tibet and Taiwan are two sensitive issues as far as China is concerned. Tibet people does not like the communist led Chinese rule over them. They wanted to create an independent country of their own under the leadership of Dalai Lama. China is using every mean to suppress the freedom fight of the Tibetan people. For them, Tibet is a part of China and any freedom movements in this region will not be allowed by the Chinese regime. China has many times accused other countries like India for providing shelter to the dissident Tibetan leader Dalai Lama. “China has accused the Dalai Lama of seeking Tibetan independence. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly and publicly said he only seeks cultural and religious autonomy for his homeland, amidst reports by Tibetan activists that China is trying to wipe out Tibetan culture. To guard against possible unrest for the anniversary, Chinese authorities have stepped up police patrols in parts of Tibet and Tibetan areas in western China.” (Ho, 2009) “Taiwan has been independent for half a century, but China describes the island as a renegade province that must be re-united with the mother land” (Taiwan China issue, 2009) China does not like an independent democratic country like Taiwan in its immediate vicinity since such things will encourage the Chinese citizens to think in terms of democracy. For many Chinese, Taiwan is a matter of national pride since they feel that an isolation of Taiwan from China may reflect China’s inability in uniting the whole country together. By keeping Taiwan low on its agenda, China can calm down the internal agitations for democracy in its main territory. China is aware of the fact that United States is seeking an opportunity to interfere in the Taiwan issue. They want to avoid any conflict with the US at present since US market is one of the biggest markets for the Chinese products. Beijing has turned the Taiwan issue into a huge obstacle to China's rise as a great power. The higher Taiwan moves up Beijing's political and foreign policy agenda, the more Beijing raises tension in the region and in relations with the United States. That tension could endanger China's main goal of economic growth and development. Investors would become more nervous, neighbours would be more wary, and increasing American involvement would be to the detriment of China. Moreover, nationalist passions would be roused in China by promoting expectations of unification that could not be easily achieved, if at all. The result could lead to the worst of both worlds for Beijing by stimulating hostility abroad and an economic downturn at home, possibly causing the demise of communist party rule.(Yahuda, 2004) Censorship on entertainment materials Entertainment or aesthetic values are also limited in China. They have blocked most of the entertainment sites like the movie Deep Impact, the Canadian Music Centre, the Taiwanese site of MTV (mtv.com.tw) and multiple sites providing off-colour jokes as per Zittrain & Edelman. They have found in their studies that blocking of a total of 451 sites in Yahoo's categories and subcategories pertaining to Entertainment. Chinese people don’t know much about freedom and also entertainment since the authorities strictly banned things in China. They afraid that the western entertainment activities may destroy the Chinese culture and also such things may force the people to compare the freedom other people enjoys with that of the Chinese people. Censorship on religion and religious materials Religion is another entity which is banned in China. “Blocked sites included the Asian American Baptist Church, the Atheist Network, the Catholic Civil Rights League, Feng Shui at Geomancy.net, the Canberra Islamic Centre, the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg, and the Denver Zen Center. We found blocking of a total of 1,763 sites in Yahoo's categories and subcategories pertaining to religion. (Zittrain & Edelman, 2003) Democracy and religion has some definite relationships. In almost all the democratic countries, belief in religion is not a sin while such things are strongly opposed in communist led countries. Religion and its beliefs are superstitions as per the communist principles. Different religions and different beliefs may increase the conflicts among people and hence it should be prohibited as per the communist theories. Religion is interpreted as a product of capitalism by the communists. Religion is not allowed in China and hence the matters related to religion will always be blocked in all the Medias in China especially in news papers, televisions and internet. Most of the Chinese television industry is controlled by the government agencies and hence the programs telecasting will always keep in line with the interests of the Chinese government. Most of the foreign suspected television channels are banned in china to avoid western infiltration. “Certain news websites, websites related to certain religious organizations (most of them are illegal in China), as well as some pornographic websites are inaccessible from China.” (Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center, n,d) Pornography is also controlled on internet apart from the political and religious issues. The internet related crimes also has been increasing in China along with the control mechanisms. Tiananmen massacre and censorship “Up to the end of the 1980s, China was seen as a reforming country moving towards market economics and an ally of the West to counter the then-Soviet Union, which China also feared despite being Communist as well. The collapse of the Soviet Union around the same time, as well as this Tiananmen massacre, changed that view; China’s political value to the West lessened due to the demise of the Soviet Union and political critique of China could therefore become more pronounced” (Shah, 2008) China has tightened the screws on free will because of the destruction of Soviet Union and also the Tiananmen massacre. They have enforced more censorship upon foreign media after Soviet Union’s destruction. But at the same time they want to make the external world believe that everything is under proper shape in China in order to enter into foreign markets. They know very well that any embargos upon them with respect to freedom of expression in China may reduce their chances of copeting in international markets. The role of American companies in ensuring censorship in China One of the interesting things about the censorship of internet in China has achieved this internet control with the help of some US firms though United States always strongly criticized the censorship policies and human right violations in China. The Chinese government has tightened the screws on internet with respect to the information accessible to the public. “The BBC news site is inaccessible, while a search on Google.cn for the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement directs users to a string of condemnatory articles.” (Google censors itself for China, 2006) Amnesty International has reported that many foreign companies especially the American companies like Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, Websense and Sun Microsystems had reportedly provided technology used to censor and control the use of the Internet in China. (Censorship in China, overview, 2008) Censorship related Chinese strategies to exploit foreign markets “China has signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which means it intends to be bound by the spirit of the Covenant pending ratification. Article 19 of the ICCPR clearly states that everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference; that everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression, and that this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.” (Censorship in China Business Standards in China, 2008) The above agreements will remain on papers alone in China. China has signed this agreement just to convince the international community that every human right has been kept in China. China does not want to isolate from the international community. They know very well that Globalization and liberalization policies have opened the business doors widely for them. The mass production of goods in China forced them to explore international markets for their products. The big markets like America will not be accessible to them if they does not sign the agreement mentioned above. Thus though on papers everything is on the right track, in practice it is not true as far as human rights in China are concerned. “Article 35 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China seeks to ensure that citizens enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession, and of demonstration. (Censorship in China Business Standards in China, 2008) Northeast Asia media expert Ashley W. Esarey says it is also likely the Internet will play a role in Chinese media reform, because its “absolute control has proven difficult, if not impossible.” (Zissis& Bhattacharji, 2008) Hackers are smart enough to crack down even the best internet security sites and hence China may not enjoy the luxury of controlling the internet for a longer period. Despite the systematic control of news in China—the U.S. State Department estimates China has between thirty thousand and fifty thousand Internet monitors—editors and journalists find ways to get news past the censors(Zissis& Bhattacharji, 2008) Future of censorship in China Most of the Chinese Medias like Television and newspapers are undergoing immense commercialization processes and hence China may be forced to loosen the screws of censorship in future. It is not easy for the Chinese Medias to compete with foreign media giants under the tight censorship from the government. The success of the Media industry is always lies with the interests of the people. If the interesting topics of the people are blocked, the Chinese media industry may not survive the international competition. There are more than two thousand newspapers, over eight thousand magazines, and some 374 television stations in China apart from over 150 million Internet users. (Zissis& Bhattacharji, 2008) Several government bodies are engaged in reviewing the content of the media products flowing within, into and from China. Any information which is suspicious with respect to the religion, politics, or contents against the communist led government will be banned. As in the case of former Soviet Union, most of the unhealthy things happening in China may not be aware to the external world because of the tight censorship measures. Even the tourists of China may not have full access to the volatile areas. Conclusions Most of the statistics obtained from china has clearly showed that china has enforced strict censorship upon medias and internet. Majority of the foreign sites related to entertainment, religion, democracy, health and education were blocked in china because of the suspected contents. Moreover anything related to Taiwan and Tibet also blocked under Chinese territory since they think that these two regions are the part of China and any movements in these countries will be against the interests of the Chinese people. Though China has signed the treaty for conserving human rights, in practice they are not giving enough respect to that agreement. They have signed the accord just to clear the barriers for their products from entering into foreign markets. They know very well about the possibilities of globalization and they want to exploit it for their own advantages. Almost the entire media and the internet are controlled by the Chinese authorities. Another interesting thing is that the control over the internet has been accomplished with the help of American companies though America always speaks loudly against the human right violations in China. Even now, the greedy MNCs from America are helping China in implementing or maintaining strict censorship on different medias in China in order to make profit. It is not easy for China to control internet for a longer period because of the global reach of the internet. References 1. Wiseman Paul, USA TODAY, (2008), Cracking the 'Great Firewall' of China's Web censorship, Retrieved on March 23 2009 from http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2008-04-22-InternetBandits_N.htm 2. Google censors itself for China , (2006) Retrieved on March 21 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4645596.stm 3. Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center,(n,d) Internet Censorship in China, Retrieved on March 23 2009 from http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/Internet-censorship.html 4. Censorship in China, overview (2008) Retrieved on March 21 2009 from http://www.amnestyusa.org/business-and-human-rights/internet-censorship/page.do?id=1101572 5. Censorship in China Business Standards in China, (2008) Retrieved on March 23 2009 from http://www.amnestyusa.org/business-and-human-rights/internet-censorship/business-standards-in-china/page.do?id=1101629 6. Collins Dan, (2002) China's Internet Censorship Retrieved on March 19 2009 from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/03/tech/main531567.shtml 7. Zissis Carin & Bhattacharji Preeti, (2008), Media Censorship in China Retrieved on March 19 2009 from http://www.cfr.org/publication/11515/ 8. WONG EDWARD & ANSFIELD JONATHAN, (2009) Chinese TV Censors Part of Address by Obama Retrieved on March 23 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/world/asia/22china.html 9. Zittrain Jonathan & Edelman Benjamin (2003) Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China Retrieved on April 8, 2009 from http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/china/ 10. Taiwan China Issue, (2009) Retrieved on April 8, 2009 from http://www.collegeresearch.us/show_essay/16405.html 11. Yahuda Michael (2004) China's Taiwan Dilemma, Retrieved on April 8, 2009 from http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=3360 12. Shah Anup, (2008) China and Human Rights Author and Page information, Retrieved on April 8, 2009 from http://www.globalissues.org/article/144/china-and-human-rights 13. Ho Stephanie, (2009) China Considers Tibet a Sovereignty Issue, Retrieved on April 8, 2009 from http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-03-09-voa10.cfm Read More