China tightens curbs on media ahead of crucial communist party meetings

The 2007 National People's Congress in March sees China tightening restrictions on Chinese media.

BY A CORRESPONDENT
March 1, 2007

Media authorities in China are stepping up propaganda campaign and media controls ahead of a series of important Communist Party meetings in 2007, listing 20 banned subjects to ensure that nothing disturbs a “harmonious” outlook.

The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, has reported that the media is tightly controlled by the Communist Party in China and many of the restrictions underline the existing curbs on reporting.

However, with the National People’s Congress starting in March 2007 and a crucial Party Congress due in the Fall, the leadership is keen to make the media toe the communist party line.

The curbs were issued at a meeting on January 12 of the propaganda department of China’s top media authority, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).

The media in China has been banned from even discussing censorship of the media and press freedom. Also not up for discussion are historical events such as the anti-rightist campaign and the Cultural Revolution, as well as the recent anti-corruption campaign and legal and rights protection campaigns.

SARFT also cautioned that discussion of the mistakes made during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) should not be geared towards denying the “historic accomplishment of the party and Mao Zedong.”

Media outlets will be urged to make sure that commemoration of the Nanking Massacre in 1937, when invading Japanese troops killed hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians, must be reported in a way that will not harm the Sino-Japanese relationship.

There are currently numerous documentaries and films being made in China and Hollywood about the incident known as the ‘Rape of Nanking.’

Ties between Beijing and Tokyo are still strained over what China sees as a Japanese lack of remorse for war crimes, but there have been signs of warmer relations in recent months.

Coverage of the 90th anniversary of Russia’s October Revolution should be strictly censored and reporting about the collapse of the former Soviet Union and its East European satellites should be played down, the SARFT has ordered.

Other forbidden areas include judicial corruption, the activities of human rights activists, sexual crimes, the aristocratic lifestyle of high-income groups and reporting on affairs with mistresses.

To cater to the sensibilities of Muslim minorities, the “pig character in general should not be mentioned” this year, according to the SARFT guidelines.