China Law Seeks to Curb Foreign Media Too
BEIJING, July 3 — A Chinese draft law that threatens to fine news media for reporting on “sudden incidents” without permission applies to foreign as well as domestic news organizations, an official involved in preparing the legislation said today.
The law, now under consideration by the Communist Party-run legislature, calls for fines of up to $12,500 if news media produce unauthorized reports on outbreaks of disease, natural disasters, social disturbances or other so-called sudden incidents that officials deem false or harmful to China’s social order.
Wang Yongqing, vice minister of the legislative affairs office of China’s State Council, or cabinet, told reporters at a news briefing that the law should apply to all news organizations, including foreign newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets that usually operate under different rules than local Chinese media.
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July 4th, 2006 at 6:11 am
China’s media clampdown law is still in the proposal stage and the way things work in China, the longer it stays in that stage, and the more it is talked about, the less likely it is to be enacted. The silver lining in all of this is that this proposed law is increasing Chinese importance of press freedom. If this law ends up not being enacted (and I think that is a real possibility) its proposal and subsequent failure will end up being a good thing for freedom of the press in China.