China shows the red flag to news websites

New set of regulations to strengthen Chinese Government's grip over the internet and Web media.

BY A CORRESPONDENT

25th September, 2005: In China, it just got a bit tougher to do news business on the Internet. On Sunday, the Chinese government's Ministry of Information Industry announced new regulations to control news content in Internet websites. This was reported by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.

The report does not spell out the norms for reporting news on Internet, but vaguely says that news content should be used in public interest and security. It also requires that online news content distributors should register themselves with the government under their real names and e-mail identities.

Recently, a Chinese journalist was arrested for writing in an e-mail about media restrictions in China. He was sentenced to a 10-year prison term. He was traced with the information provided by Internet powerhouse Yahoo.

In fact, web's bigger known names like MSN and Yahoo have been doing docile business in China, since they do not want to be seen as going against the wishes of the Chinese government. China has the world's second largest population of Internet users at 100 million. US leads with 135 million. The rate of growth of Internet use in China is faster than that of US.

The Chinese government has promoted the use of Internet for education and business, but has kept a tight leash on the use of Net for dissidence and pornography. Access to many foreign news websites is restricted in China. The government has shut down several websites, closed cybercafes and arrested many of its citizens for indulging what it sees as dissidence. Though the latest set of regulations do not spell out the dos and donts for editors and webmasters, they are clearly designed to strengthen the state's grip over the use of media. 

BY A CORRESPONDENT