Freedom House just published a new report titled “Speak No Evil: Mass Media Control in Contemporary China.” The full report is available to download here (PDF file):
State control over the news media in China is achieved through a complex combination of party monitoring of news content, legal restrictions on journalists, and financial incentives for self-censorship.
The report explains how senior media managers appointed by the CCP are responsible for the news content of the media organizations they oversee — and how they are expected to censor content deemed unfavorable or divisive. These media managers’ career prospects depend on their effectiveness in producing media content that is both attractive to consumers and politically uncontroversial. Managers, editors and journalists’ salaries are determined in large part by the nature of the news they produce.
See also Ashley Esarey’s article “Cornering the Market: State Strategies or Controlling China’s Commercial Media,” available or download on the Asian Perspective website.
Technorati Tags: censorship, China, press freedom
