Chinas Appalling Media Freedom - Report Example

Foundation course Name Institution Date China’s Appalling Media Freedom In the recent past, china has been on the lime light on issues related to freedom of the media. The country has had to deal with a swam of criticism, knee jerk reactions from various activists, human rights, other countries and journalist. There complains have put the Chinese government on the spotlight apportioning it to the recent lack of freedom of speech, access to information and press freedom. Throwing a fuss on lack of press freedom in china, Joe Biden, the vice president of United States of America during, his visit to Beijing china in 2013 convened a meeting with a journalist to publically criticize how members of the press were being mistreated by the Chinese government in relation to news coverage and access to information. Biden listened to journalists’ concerns who may be forced to leave china in what they termed as retaliation for stories that have echoed scantily on china’s government. In the society we live in, we are all citizen journalist but we do have professional journalists who are the back bone of every government communication and the watch dogs for the citizens. If for every challenge faced the only way out is to pacify out information by making journalist suffer, then it’s likely that china will continue to remain bottom in their providence of media in relation to freedom. I take the example of Chinese artist who possesses attractive painting, drawing and sculpturing skills and is popular among the people of China. To him, suffering in the hands of the Chinese authorities is never a newer lesson. As Makinen (2010) puts it, he states that as an artist, one of the greatest jobs in performing is to defend the freedom of speech. And it is this quest that has landed him in jails after engaging in mobilizing people in social media platforms. Just last year freedom house, in its annual index report ranking of global press freedom, China came 179 out of 196 countries surveyed and studied for media freedom. For a country which tops in the economy sector, it needs to pull its socks and start accepting that it has failures and downfalls, allow freedom of independent journalist who put the government on the spotlight for concrete governance building and creating a strong foundation rather than a government that just works on how it feels its best for its citizen. As we keep focusing on the issue of lack of freedom for the press the problems brought about by the Chinese government are rather configured than individual. The government has created the perception that the people do not have a voice but rather are voiced. The government pushes forward strict regulations with the idea of terming some subjects a taboo, an example is government policies on Tibet and Xinjiang (areas in china against the ruling government) and also on religious topics on Dalai Lama and Fauna Gong. If this is the way government of China will continue, be sure it will lose out on constructing and formulation of a strong fourth estate foundation. The digital era is striking fast and the internet consumption is rising by day. Social sites like twitter, face book, and instagram are the in thing nowadays for enhancing communication and interactions. But when we look at china, social media and websites can be equated to, or let’s say the government babysitting grown up citizens, or like a security check point on every entrance frisking and checking for any suspicious violence tool. The government strictly monitors and evaluates all data and services on the social media, personal texts messages and websites just to ensure that any information that passes or is transmitted does not contain any information about the government or any that can harm the reputation of any China’s governing body. An instance is when Xiang Nangfu, a 62 year US-based reporter working for boxun.com was arrested for covering a story headlined “Human organ harvesting from living people buried alive”, which according to the Chinese government had a detrimental effect on the global reputation of China (Global Network, 2014). It has even gone beyond what I term as injustice to citizens to ban some accessible material from the Google search platform. This is the internet censorship blocking users from getting necessary information, using advanced software to delete sensitive entries from the internet by blocking websites around the world that have different political aspects, content and ideas. Looking at Some of the restricted words from the internet, cloud and Google search engines include ‘big yellow duck’ (its image is circulated online showing a giant top duck replacing a military vehicle in the tank man photos). The image evokes the iconic image of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 where Chinese people were forcibly suppressed and hardline leaders ordered the military to enforce martial law on unarmed civilians in the heart of the country's capital other examples include: shanghai index, candle (because the candle light is commonly used online to mourn death), fire, torch, democracy twitter, crush, destroy and square among many others that you will not be able to access from the internet dais when you are in China mainland. The Chinese government has gone as far as “deployment of an army of cyber-police, hardware and software developers, web monitors and some sponsored online propagandists who can watch, filter, guide and censor internet users. For the private internet companies which consist of a bigger bunch of western edifice, they are at liberty to do business without deviating from the restrictions (The economist: p1). Drawing closely through media freedom in Australia, it’s a way big different where freedom of opinion and expression for the journalist is in full existence. No government interaction, social media and sites are at free will except for explicit content, and the system of governance which is democratic and no form of harassment for journalists, though few issues like lack of adequate legislative protection for the confidentiality of journalists sources. But even with this, the press freedom in Australia is open and geared towards the will of the people and their voice matters to the government and not like in china where the government imposes forced rules against its journalist to do what it wants them to do. It wouldn’t be wrong to put all the blame on the Chinese government for making its citizens lag behind in their media liberty and decline in foreign journalism reportage. The cries and the lamentations of foreign journalists who continuously decry of being mistreated and silenced in relation to looking for information on Chinese grounds. Looking back to earlier this year Huang Qi, founder of the human rights website, was detained and arrested for reporting on Tiananmen Square. This act is completely unacceptable for a journalist who simply wants to share information. In as much as China’s communist party long strives to suppressing freedom, it is not also possible to control the internet unless they shut it down, of which they can’t live with the consequence. In as much as its economy is a tick, the benefit of media is vast “Innovation thrives where people breathe freely, speaks freely, are able to challenge orthodoxy, where newspapers can report the truth without fear or favor of consequence”, Joe Biden, vice president USA. Failing to accept mistakes in life cannot make you stronger. Suppressing the journalism profession of integrity, accuracy, fairness and confidentiality is one of the worst thing a country can do to its citizen and that is why if China does not think twice to accept and grant freedom of press, it will forever lose out on many of the independent journalist as many countries are trying to make good the mistakes they have made in relation to media freedom. The communist party in China is leading in restraining media freedom just because they are in the government and impose themselves to control the media for the purpose of propagating positive views of their party, when in reality they bear and are filled with negativity and fear of exposure. That is why the more reason we see on online publications and read on blogs the rising decline in Hong Kong’s media environment due to the growing government limitations on journalist accessing information, several violence and technical attacks against reporters and media websites. Quoting Jill Abramson, the executive director editor times, from the daily news publication December 5th 2013 “unfettered coverage in china is a crucial issue at a time when China’s is such an important and compelling story. The world needs the highest quality reporting on it. When a government refutes being told where it has gone wrong and consistently punishes individuals for good deeds, it’s a clear sign of some dictatorship. This is where chains media freedom prom emulate from, since it’s a communist ruled nation, majority of the people have no say in regards to government actions, as they strongly monitor government’s actions and have limited human rights, with how their current state of media freedom is diminishing. For sure one day they will get fed up and bring down the communist government for a free and fair ruling system of governance. Many Chinese people do not enjoy the same rights enjoyed by the rest of the world. In the digital era, their technological interaction is monitored and businesses have to contend with much conservative government rules. Until and unless the government of china grants and addresses fully the journalism profession and media freedom through appropriate legislative action, not politicking and personalizing the countries media freedom will forever remain in jeopardy. Reflection on the written story The topic was selected after various concerns and from publications over china’s media freedom by its ruling government. The restrictions faced and the hurdle experienced by foreign journalists who are out there to bring news to the world from far and wide. This particular topic was important for the purpose of understanding how journalism is practiced and exercised in the eastern continent specifically China, compare and contrast with how media freedom is exercised here in Australia and learn how much the government offers its support to the journalist. In tackling the story, there are a couple of ethical issues faced ranging from accuracy and fairness, objectivity and impartiality; in tackling them I decided to take an angle of being integral by telling it all, since what has been said is the truth and reality of the matter. Avoiding explaining a particular situation simply because of fear of letting out information in the journalism profession can be termed as incompetent and a cowardly act more so; unable to deliver. The various literal techniques used were effective and efficient ranging from attribution of what someone has said, as this adds taste to the concern being explained; use of description to clearly provide a picture of reality, the argumentative type of story that enables the reader to realize how serious a particular issue is. By using these techniques, I was able to express and vibrantly tell more beyond, I could feel the urgency to communicate and also explain further. They also assisted in combining facts and thoughts that are key when writing for an audience that has the same views over as particular subjects. In writing this piece I discovered that there is much more about china that goes only beyond words, looking at the media freedom in china how different it is from the Australian media freedom not so many concrete restrictions. I was able to exercise patience, not writing to finish but to tell a story, learning the importance of research and to be kept updated with current issues affecting the world of journalism Reference Biden chides China for lack of journalistic freedom . (n.d.). NY Daily News. Retrieved September 19, 2014, from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/biden-chides-china-lack-journalistic-freedom-article-1.1538221 The Economist. China’s internet, A giant Cage. 06th April, 2013. P. 1 Foreign Policy Makinen, J. “For Chinese artist Ai Weiwei free is a relative term”,. 1oth, June, 2014. P. 1. Business insider Michael Kelly June 4th 2013 Read More

The digital era is striking fast and the internet consumption is rising by day. Social sites like twitter, face book, and instagram are the in thing nowadays for enhancing communication and interactions. But when we look at china, social media and websites can be equated to, or let’s say the government babysitting grown up citizens, or like a security check point on every entrance frisking and checking for any suspicious violence tool. The government strictly monitors and evaluates all data and services on the social media, personal texts messages and websites just to ensure that any information that passes or is transmitted does not contain any information about the government or any that can harm the reputation of any China’s governing body.

An instance is when Xiang Nangfu, a 62 year US-based reporter working for boxun.com was arrested for covering a story headlined “Human organ harvesting from living people buried alive”, which according to the Chinese government had a detrimental effect on the global reputation of China (Global Network, 2014). It has even gone beyond what I term as injustice to citizens to ban some accessible material from the Google search platform. This is the internet censorship blocking users from getting necessary information, using advanced software to delete sensitive entries from the internet by blocking websites around the world that have different political aspects, content and ideas.

Looking at Some of the restricted words from the internet, cloud and Google search engines include ‘big yellow duck’ (its image is circulated online showing a giant top duck replacing a military vehicle in the tank man photos). The image evokes the iconic image of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 where Chinese people were forcibly suppressed and hardline leaders ordered the military to enforce martial law on unarmed civilians in the heart of the country's capital other examples include: shanghai index, candle (because the candle light is commonly used online to mourn death), fire, torch, democracy twitter, crush, destroy and square among many others that you will not be able to access from the internet dais when you are in China mainland.

The Chinese government has gone as far as “deployment of an army of cyber-police, hardware and software developers, web monitors and some sponsored online propagandists who can watch, filter, guide and censor internet users. For the private internet companies which consist of a bigger bunch of western edifice, they are at liberty to do business without deviating from the restrictions (The economist: p1). Drawing closely through media freedom in Australia, it’s a way big different where freedom of opinion and expression for the journalist is in full existence.

No government interaction, social media and sites are at free will except for explicit content, and the system of governance which is democratic and no form of harassment for journalists, though few issues like lack of adequate legislative protection for the confidentiality of journalists sources. But even with this, the press freedom in Australia is open and geared towards the will of the people and their voice matters to the government and not like in china where the government imposes forced rules against its journalist to do what it wants them to do.

It wouldn’t be wrong to put all the blame on the Chinese government for making its citizens lag behind in their media liberty and decline in foreign journalism reportage. The cries and the lamentations of foreign journalists who continuously decry of being mistreated and silenced in relation to looking for information on Chinese grounds. Looking back to earlier this year Huang Qi, founder of the human rights website, was detained and arrested for reporting on Tiananmen Square. This act is completely unacceptable for a journalist who simply wants to share information.

In as much as China’s communist party long strives to suppressing freedom, it is not also possible to control the internet unless they shut it down, of which they can’t live with the consequence.

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