From China Media Project:
Chinese media seldomly use the highly sensitive term “human rights” (‰∫∫ÊùÉ) to talk about China’s own rights issues, but the use of a stand-in term, weiquan (Áª¥ÊùÉ), roughly translated “rights protection”, has risen rapidly in recent years as media have turned to such issues as public health, land rights, the rights of migrant workers, etcetera. The rapid climb in use of the term “rights protection” suggests growing attention within China, particularly among commercial media, to a range of issues like those mentioned above as they pertain to citizens’ rights.
Looking at the term “rights protection” as it appears in three party publications and corresponding commercial publications since 2002, the numbers show not only growing attention to rights issues, but also a growing gap between coverage at party and commercial media. In 2002, use of the term was roughly neck-and-neck, with commercial publications accounting for 45 percent of the total. Commercial publications accounted for close to 60 percent of uses last year, and this year 72 percent. There are also marked differences in use of the term between party and commercial publications, a topic for another time….[Full Text]
