BBC “strongly condemned” China’s “deliberate” Blocking of Shortwave Service Broadcasts

The BBC has “strongly condemned” the “deliberate and co-ordinated” jamming of the BBC World Service by authorities in China.

On Monday the corporation issued a statement after receiving reports that its shortwave frequencies were being blocked in China.

Drawing lessons from Chinese attacks on US media

Not every media company is as tempting a target for hackers as The New York Times, The Washington Post, or The Wall Street Journal. Not every company can afford high-priced computer security consultants, either. Is there anything that everyday reporters and their editors can learn about protecting themselves, based on the revelatory details the Times and other targets made public last week?

As we wrote at the time, the cyber-attacks on the Times, the Post, and the Journal came as no surprise to foreign reporters working in China or elsewhere who repeatedly face fake emails, custom malware, and hacking attacks on their webmail. But the level of access that the hackers obtained at the Times’ main offices, and the publication of details by their technical advisers, can be instructive.

Cyber-attack on the NY Times Was Directed by the Communist Propaganda Department- Insider Says

A CCP top-level insider verified the cyber-attack on the New York Times was directed by the CCP Publicity Department.

Buxun.com reported on February 2nd that Beijing Top level revealed the cyber-attack on the New York Times was on the orders of Publicity Department network management office.

The message revealed that Liu Yunshan, Liu Qibao and the head of network management office Wang Chen were masterminds in the cyber attack.

Hong Kong Falls 4 Points in Annual World Press Freedom Index

Press freedom in Hong Kong took a blow this year, falling four points in Reporters Without Borders’ annual report.

The World Press Freedom Index measures “the freedom to produce and circulate accurate news and information.”

[Mak Yin-ting, Chairwoman of Hong Kong Journalist Association]:
“The deterioration of press freedom is very serious now. It has reached a critical point. It’s a significant time now to determine if Hong Kong is an independent place or if it’s turning into a place like mainland China’s lack of freedom.”

China blocks magazine over Taiwan democracy report

A Chinese magazine dedicated to history has been forced to halt the release of a February issue that was to chronicle Taiwan’s democratic transformation, a Shanghai-based newspaper reported yesterday.

“National History” magazine, published by the state-run Chengdu Xianfeng Culture Media Co. based in Sichuan province, had compiled a series of articles authored by Taiwanese writers for a special February edition titled “Taiwan’s Foot,” the Oriental Daily News reported.

RSF Condemns China on Media Coverage Restrictions of the High-speed Train Crash in Wenzhou

Reporters Without Borders condemns the severe restrictions that the Propaganda Department has imposed on media coverage of the high-speed train crash on 23 July in the southeastern city of Wenzhou, in which 39 people were killed.

Wang Qinglei, a producer with state-owned China Central Television (中國中央電視台), was fired on 27 July because of his investigative coverage of the crash. The previous day, his News 1+1 programme was suspended without advance warning and without explanation after it criticized a transport ministry spokesman.

Legislators Seek to Protect Independent TV Broadcasts to China

WASHINGTON—Lawmakers in the United States, Hong Kong, and Taiwan believe the Chinese Communist regime is responsible for a move that would potentially bar New Tang Dynasty (NTD) Television from broadcasting to mainland China. They are asking the government of Taiwan to act to protect press freedom.

In a letter to Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher wrote, “The democratic government of Taiwan should be encouraging the spread of ideas favoring freedom and traditional values across the strait.”

Amnesty Annual Report 2011- China

The Chinese government responded to a burgeoning civil society by jailing and persecuting people for peacefully expressing their views, holding religious beliefs not sanctioned by the state, advocating for democratic reform and human rights, and defending the rights of others. Popular social media sites remained blocked by China’s internet firewall. The authorities continued to repress Tibetan, Uighur, Mongolian and other ethnic minority populations. On the international stage, China grew more confident and more aggressive in punishing countries whose leaders spoke publicly about its human rights record.

Background

China Has ‘Highly Repressive’ Press, says by Freedom House

The level of press freedom in the Asia-Pacific region has fallen, with conditions in China “highly repressive” and with extensive state and Communist party controls also evident in Laos and Vietnam, U.S. human rights group Freedom House said in an annual survey Monday.

The region is also home to two of the survey’s poorest performers, Burma and North Korea, it said, citing a  modest decline in the average score for the Asia-Pacific in the group’s latest annual media freedom index assessing the degree of print, broadcast, and Internet freedom.

China threatens foreign journalists for ‘illegal’ reporting

New York, March 3, 2011– Police threats to revoke foreign journalists’ visas and require advance permission for newsgathering are disturbing new efforts to restrict reporting on protests in China, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Police told some foreign journalists they could lose their accreditation and residence permits if they conduct “illegal” reporting in parts of central Beijing and Shanghai without permission, according to Reuters and other international news reports. Some journalists reported being told that advance consent would be required for any filming in China going forward. The warnings were given to journalists from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, the BBC, and other news outlets, in meetings held Wednesday and today, according to international news reports.

HRW: China Should Immediately Investigate Police Assaults Against Foreign Journalists

The Chinese government should immediately investigate a recent incident in which more than a dozen members of the foreign media were assaulted or intimidated by uniformed Chinese police and plainclothes thugs in downtown Beijing, Human Rights Watch said today. Failure to thoroughly investigate such incidents fosters a culture of official impunity for attacks against the press in China.

“It’s unacceptable that the police attack foreign media seeking to cover a public event,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The Chinese government should show it isn’t turning back the clock on media freedom by investigating this incident and holding the perpetrators accountable.”

Foreign journalists detained in China’s ‘Jasmine’ protests

New York, February 28, 2011— Chinese security officials’ concerted attack on the foreign press in a busy commercial street near Tiananmen Square in Beijing Sunday is a return to the restrictions international reporters faced before they were eased in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Police briefly detained more than a dozen foreign journalists and assaulted at least two at the site of a planned anti-government protest in Beijing on Sunday, according to international news reports. All were released after a few hours. Anonymous appeals for “Jasmine”-themed protests in Chinese cities, based on popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, began circulating online on February 19. The authors of the appeals call for an end to government corruption and an independent judiciary.

China Police violence against foreign journalists to cover the street protest in Beijing

Police officers roughed up foreign journalists trying to cover a protest yesterday on Beijing’s Wangfujing Street, including a Bloomberg News reporter who was badly beaten by plainclothes security men and had to be hospitalized with a head injury. Cameras were seized in order to delete photos and video. A dozen journalists were held for several hours in a police station. Media and websites including TV5, CNN and Linkedin were censored.

Inspired by the “Jasmine Revolution” pro-democracy demonstrations in Tunisia and elsewhere, the Beijing demonstration had been announced in advance on the Internet but hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes police officers, accompanied by police dogs, were deployed in major show of force to prevent it from taking place.

Hong Kong Media’s Credibility Declines, Survey Says

HONG KONG—The credibility of media here has been decaying for the last decade, a recent survey indicates. The probable cause? Self-censorship.

The fact comes from the “Credibility of Hong Kong Media” research report produced by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, which indicates a steady decline in the credibility of Hong Kong media for the past 13 years.

The interpretation comes from Chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), Mak Yin-ting, who believes the reason is self-censorship, and that in this the media has only itself to blame.

China’s Propaganda Department issues orders for 2011- a blackout on social and economic problems

China’s Propaganda Department, which is under the direct orders of the country’s Communist Party, has marked the New Year with a series of directives to the media. Regarded as state secrets, they have been delivered by word of mouth to journalists at meetings where note-taking has been banned.

However, Reporters Without Borders has obtained details of the instructions.

They impose a blackout on social and economic problems with a view to “reassuring” the people and defending the concept of fair growth. Many issues are off-limits, so that the party line is not challenged. They include the property market, rising prices, corruption, the demolition of housing and compulsory relocation, residence permits, the absence of social security, inadequate transport during the Chinese New Year and popular discontent that finds expression in anti-government demonstrations.

Imprisoned 10 Years in China, Epoch Times Editor up for Release

After spending the last 10 years of his life in a Chinese prison, Zhang Yuhui is scheduled to be released on Dec. 21. The former editor-in-chief of the China branch of The Epoch Times was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role with the uncensored, Chinese-language edition of the newspaper.

A photograph of Zhang, a letter to his wife, and a letter to the U.S. Congress, which were smuggled out of the prison by inmates in 2004, are among the few records of his life obtained over the last decade. Unable to contact the outside world or his wife and two children, his current condition is unknown. He is known to have been tortured by the Chinese authorities in the early years of his arrest.

Imprisoned 10 Years in China, Epoch Times Editor up for Release

By Joshua Philipp, Epoch Times Staff, Dec. 14, 2010 –

After spending the last 10 years of his life in a Chinese prison, Zhang Yuhui is scheduled to be released on Dec. 21. The former editor-in-chief of the China branch of The Epoch Times was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role with the uncensored, Chinese-language edition of the newspaper.

A photograph of Zhang, a letter to his wife, and a letter to the U.S. Congress, which were smuggled out of the prison by inmates in 2004, are among the few records of his life obtained over the last decade. Unable to contact the outside world or his wife and two children, his current condition is unknown. He is known to have been tortured by the Chinese authorities in the early years of his arrest.

The state of media in China

By David Bandurski, on China Media Project, Via Reporters Without Borders, Nov. 2 , 2010 –

One month ago, veteran journalist and CMP fellow Zhang Ping (张平), who writes under the penname Chang Ping (长平), was visited at the offices of Guangdong’s official Nanfang Daily by state security police who wished to have a “chat.” At roughly the same time, propaganda authorities issued an order preventing Zhang from writing editorials for Southern Weekly and Southern Metropolis Daily, both respected commercial spin-offs of Nanfang Daily where his writings have appeared for years.

Now a researcher at the Nanfang Daily Newspapers Communications Research Institute (南都传播研究院), Zhang was formerly director of the news desk at Southern Weekend and a deputy editor at Southern Metropolis Weekly.

Epoch Times Office Shot in Australia a Threat to Freedom of Speech

By Shar Adams, Epoch Times Staff, Nov. 2, 2010 –

The Epoch Times offices in Queensland were attacked last week in an act of intimidation designed to suppress information about grave human rights abuses occurring in China.

The Epoch Times office in Queensland was shot at last week in what is understood to be an act of intimidation.

David Matas, a Canadian human rights lawyer in Brisbane to speak at an Epoch Times forum on illegal organ harvesting, says he has experienced intimidation at forums on the topic before, but was surprised at the violence involved.

Chinese reporter tells story of ‘EU censorship’ during China-EU summit

ANDREW RETTMAN AND ANDREW WILLIS, The EUobserver.com, 11.10.2010 –

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – One of the reporters temporarily excluded from the China-EU summit last week has talked to EUobserver about his “surprise” at facing Chinese-style censorship in the bosom of the European Union.

Lixin Yang, who has full press accreditation in the EU institutions in Brussels, was first denied entry when he and three colleagues arrived at the metal detectors at the summit venue, the EU Council’s Justus Lipsius building, at 2pm local time last Wednesday (6 October). He works for the government-critical media The Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty Television, which have links to the repressed Falun Gong movement.

China wages propaganda war after Nobel Price to Liu Xiaobo

AFP, Oct. 12, 2010 –

BEIJING — As soon as dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, China’s censorship machine kicked in to suppress the news, but not even that could muzzle web users, especially those on Twitter.

When the prize was announced on Friday in Oslo, the communist regime’s propaganda department moved quickly to prevent any mention in its media — television, radio, press, phone services and the Internet were all affected.

Those who attempted to send text messages containing Liu’s Chinese name found them blocked.

Chinese Printer of Book “The Great Migration” Arrested After the Author

Reporters Without Borders, Sep. 17, 2010 –

Zhao Shun, a printer from the northeastern province of Hebei, was arrested earlier this week by the authorities of Weinan, in the central province of Shaanxi. The reason for his arrest has not been announced, but it was Zhao who printed “The Great Migration,” a book by journalist Xie Chaoping that seems to have been the reason for Xie’s arrest in Weinan on 19 August.

“Two men are now being held for writing and printing this book about the human impact of the Sanmenxia Dam, which was built across the Yellow River during Mao’s Great Leap Forward in the 1950s,” Reporters Without Borders said. “When will the Chinese authorities accept that journalists and academics can write about contemporary Chinese history without posing a threat?”

The press freedom organisation added: “We appeal to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to intercede on behalf of Xie and Zhao and obtain their release without delay.”

Both Zhao’s family and Xie’s wife confirmed the arrest of Zhao, who printed Xie’s book in the form of a supplement in the newspaper Huohua (The Spark). More information about Xie’s detention: http://en.rsf.org/china-journalist-…

Xie’s lawyer said the police forced Xie to name the printer. Colleagues of Zhao have also been interrogated by the police.

A Chinese researcher specialising in journalists’ rights said the probable outcome of the arrests would be that those involved in publishing the book would be prosecuted on charges of “illegal commercial practices.”

– Reporters Without Borders

China Censors closed down an online discussion forum for media information exchange

Radio Free asia, Sep 15, 2010 –

HONG KONG— Chinese officials have closed down an online discussion forum used by regional newspapers to exchange information and discuss articles for publication, media sources said Wednesday.

The group was set up by editors and journalists from 13 regional newspapers on the popular QQ chat service, which is widely used in China.

“According to my information, it’s to do with an editorial that was carried by the 13 Metropolis group newspapers in March this year, around the time of the annual parliamentary sessions,” a Guangdong-based source familiar with the situation said of the move.

“I heard that this editorial made someone angry in the top levels of leadership, and they ordered an investigation by the propaganda department, and a number of other departments as well, into how the editorial was syndicated,” the source added.