ChinaGeeks translates an editorial debate from Southern Weekend which is a response to a People’s Daily survey asking whether officials fear netizens:
The People’s Daily did a survey, according to which “70% of people think that officials fear the internet.” But if you look at the objects of the survey, 5,900 of the 6,200 surveyed were netizens, only 300 were officials, and none were common people. From the design and results of the survey we can see it’s not the least bit scientific, it seems more like a sort of masturbatory experience for netizens. Do officials really fear the internet?
In favor: Yes, they’re definitely a bit afraid. The traditional media is more self-disciplined and falls more directly under the authority of officials, so it’s hard [for those media sources] to avoid being handcuffed. There’s no way they can match the freedom and diversity of the internet. Anyone with a heart on the internet is a “reporter”. China often says “the eyes of the masses are bright”; and with so many people watching, there’s an apt saying: “Good news doesn’t make it out the door, bad news is passed far and wide.” The threshold for internet access is low, the publishing speed is fast. The “Tianjia Cigarettes Director” Zhou Jiugeng, “Lewd girl” Lin Ju…these people were caught by netizens. China is quite severe in punishing officials who piss everyone off, so if officials do something wrong and it falls into netizens’ hands, their fate is basically decided. Is it possible for them not to fear the internet?
Opposed: I must admit, when the internet is directly compared to traditional media, it has made it much harder to keep information secret. But thinking more deeply, of all the “crimes” committed by officials publicized by the police and the courts, how many were caught by netizens? Especially for high level officials and big corruption cases, [the internet has little effect…] Moreover, netizens are more prone to groundless accusation that leads to issues going unresolved.
