Sorry, CHINA...
China forces journalists to toe party line
December 10 2002
By Hamish McDonald
China Correspondent
Beijing
Chinese Government and Communist Party agencies next year will begin a
sweeping surveillance of all the country's 400,000 journalists to test
their ideological commitment and sack those who fail.
The testing system is ostensibly to raise professional standards, but
officials admit it will have an ideological component and journalists say
they will be expected to show that they toe the ruling party line.
Journalists who pass the tests will be certified, but certificates can be
withdrawn if they "violate news discipline", an official of the State Press
and Publication Administration, Lin Jiang, was quoted as saying by Hong
Kong's South China Morning Post.
"The certification is not a life-long guarantee. Violators' certifications
would be withdrawn; they might be barred from re-taking the qualification
examinations for a couple of years, or for life," Mr Lin said.
Another Press Administration official told The Age the new system would be
promulgated next year. "The regulations haven't been finalised yet," she
said. "Before that we can't let you know anything specific."
A senior journalist with a government information service said he wanted to
be cautious about commenting on the new system. "Working as a journalist in
a non-democratic country, we have to have a high awareness of what to say,
and what not to say," he said.
However, it appeared that the vetting system would involve the Communist
Party's propaganda department, the Press Administration and the State
Personnel Ministry. It would start with journalists employed by central
government agencies, move to national media, and then to regional media,
taking about five years to certify all the country's 400,000 journalists.
"From my own career experience I can tell you it will be super slow and
bureaucratic," the journalist said.
Another journalist with state television said its journalists already had
annual tests on professional knowledge and ideology, and had to attend a
weekly study session. "During such sessions we are briefed on the latest
dos and don'ts," she said.
"At the moment the ideological component is very slight, but everyone is
very well aware of what is expected, and exercises a self-censorship
mechanism. Since we are soaked in this environment every day we just
automatically know what to do."
Authorities have already fired a warning shot since last month's Communist
Party congress. An editor at a southern Chinese newspaper was sacked for
publishing a satirical item portraying the new party secretary-general, Hu
Jintao, as a puppet leader, with his predecessor Jiang Zemin still holding
the strings.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/09/1039379782409.html
You would never sell out your fellow journalists would you china?
