Several media outlets and human rights organizations have reacted to the recent announcement by Xinhua that the official news agency would be responsible for all news distribution in China. From a New York Times editorial:
China has long prided itself on its ability to master capitalism without indulging in the messy business of democracy. So Beijing got a twofer this week when it gave the state-run Xinhua news agency monopoly control over the lucrative financial news business and the power to administer broad censorship rules for all foreign news entering China.
Xinhua even got to announce the news of the new regulations. Not surprisingly, it didn’t quote any critics…
These new rules appear, at a minimum, to violate their WTO pledges to liberalize access to financial information. Trade officials and foreign business leaders need to remind Beijing’s leaders of those promises. And they need to warn them that a country that keeps a stranglehold on information is not a great place to invest. [Full text]
And from the Washington Post:
Chinese journalists and experts said the rules merely reflect existing conditions. Foreign media companies have long been banned from selling general news services directly to Chinese media. Financial news, however, has up until now been sold directly to Chinese banks and brokerages, which depend on the data to make market trades. It is this multimillion-dollar market that the New China News Agency, known here as Xinhua, is targeting, experts said.
“The news that goes into newspapers in China is already controlled, and already goes out through Xinhua,” said James McGregor, who was chief executive of Dow Jones’s China business operations when Xinhua first tried to regulate foreign news services in 1996. “They’re trying to take over the financial information business in China. They want to make the money instead of the foreigners. This is not a control issue — they already have control. This is a money issue.” [Full text]
See the official Chinese response via People’s Daily, and a China Daily article which reports that, “Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised on Tuesday that the country would protect foreign media’s rights on news reporting in China in line with the law in an effort to assure the smooth flow of the economic and financial information.” See also an article from the Wall Street Journal; a statement from the Committee to Protect Journalists; and a commentary on the law from Richard Spencer, China correspondent for the Telegraph.
