Chinese Media Rights
One of the chief ways in which people share their thoughts, views,
and opinions on things is through the use of media. The freedom
provided by this is important because it serves to promote
innovation and the democratic ideal. China often discourages their
media from speaking against things that have to do with the
government or any economic problems. In America, our right to do
this is protected by a line in the US Constitution, “Congress shall
make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...”
while China has actively censored a myriad of media, going so far
as to block entire websites.
China’s official media policy allows freedom of speech and press.
Yet they have remade their media regulations in such a way that it is
vague enough to encompass a vast number of seemingly non
harmful things, as well as the original intended target. The official
policy is in place to stop the potential spread of state secrets on the
internet, but since it’s placement, the definition of state secrets has
been twisted. As stated in a Washington Post article written shortly
after the amendment to the regulation in 2010, “In China, state
secrets have been so broadly defined that virtually anything --
maps, GPS coordinates, even economic statistics -- could fall into
the category, and officials sometimes use the classification as a
way to avoid disclosing information.” The amendment in question
was a way of making sure that internet companies would have to be
cooperative if Chinese authorities ever investigated someone on the
basis that they are leaking state secrets. The punishment for this
crime was never specified at any point in the amendment process,
allowing the government to deal with the situation in any way they
see fit.
In America there are obviously regulations on the things that can be
expressed through media or general communication. For a long time
however, America has been reluctant to create laws regarding this