China targets media's 'evil trend' (anti-gov't dissension on the Internet)

[Tab]

HONG KONG - Top officials from China's propaganda sector recently convened a high-level meeting in central China's Henan province and concluded that some people are "exploiting the Internet" to attack the government and ruling Communist Party, Asia Times Online has learned from an informed source in Beijing. China experts say this session may signal the end of the honeymoon of China's mass media and the new Beijing leadership, which began after party chief and President Hu Jintao replaced his hardline predecessor Jiang Zemin as commander-in-chief. Authorities in Beijing now seem determined to tighten the leash on traditional media, as well as the vibrant and emerging cybermedia, the Internet.
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The source revealed that the meeting was held in November in the provincial capital Zhengzhou and attended by propaganda chiefs from a few provinces. The conference claimed that some people with ulterior motives are maliciously using the Internet to exaggerate dark sides of Chinese society and malign certain officials. The meeting vowed to contain the so-called "evil trend". The conference decision was relayed to lower authorities, warning against uncontrolled media, including the Internet.

The Internet has become a formidable menace to incompetent or corrupt Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. For years the party has blocked whatever it deemed "harmful or posing a threat to social stability". With the emergence of the Internet, keeping the flow of information under its absolute control has almost become a mission impossible for Beijing, since cyberspace sometimes slips beyond the grasp of propaganda bureaucrats and technocrats.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FL08Ad06.html

[Bono71]

1. It will be interesting to watch what happens in China as

the markets free-up if the people's individual freedoms, including the ability to protest are free as well.

[KingChicken]

2. The Internet will never be controled!!!

Try all you want, you can't put a leash on this freedom puppy, the internet will be the emerging technology that destroys the traditional powers and installs true freedom of information over the entire world.

The revolution is underway, now go out and get your Wi-Fi cards!

[strategery blunder]

3. How will China determine the nationality of Internet users?

If China tries to censor anything, it would even affect DU. There were a lot of "Wal-Mart supports forced abortion through China" threads the other day--don't think the CCP would like that.

So are they going to try to take away our freedom of speech, even if we aren't Chinese citizens?

I wonder if China is merely getting revenge for the extraterritorality and "unequal treaties" imposed on them by nineteenth-century Western powers...:eyes:

[NYC Liberal]

4. We have the opposite problem here.

The media in 'Murka is too PRO-government!