Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom - World Press ...

Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom
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supermarket chain] Carrefour, for example started on the Internet. And Carrefour is
terrified of this.
So we have to see that China has become much more proactive. They are much less
frightened of the news coming into their country, and they are prepared to fight it out on
our web sites. I think this is something that is developing even as we speak.
On our web site, there were so many comments from China giving the Chinese viewpoint
that one got the impression that they had won the argument. There were all sorts of
people saying that the Dalai Lama was an impostor. They had much more detailed
information on Tibet than our French readers. I think this is going to be a challenge over
the next few years. It is an export program of China's views and ideology in a new
proactive mode, with the Internet as its vehicle. This, in my opinion, is much more
worrisome than censorship.
Maintaining political correctness
at the Internet cafes
Yu Zhang
Coordinator, Independent Chinese PEN Center
China joined the global Internet in 1994. Internet access became commercially available in
1995. In 1996, China had fewer than 100,000 Internet users and 1,000 web sites. Eleven
years later, by the end of 2007, this had increased to 210 million users and 1.5 million
web sites.
This remarkable development has certainly improved the quality of people's lives,
including their freedom of expression, at least technically. Independent writers, especially
cyber-dissidents, who had little chance to get their critical opinions publicized on
traditional media, can more easily find opportunities to publish through the Internet while
generally facing less troubles than their predecessors who had fought for their free
expression for years. In today's China, Internet expression has become extensively
popular and extremely important to the intellectuals, particularly the dissidents.
On the other hand, China has never abandoned police control and censorship of Internet
expression. In 1996, branches of the newly formed Special Police for Internet Security
Inspection were established in several large cities where Internet access was available. In
1998, the Ministry of Public Security established a Public Information Network Security
Inspection Bureau, which covers the entire country.
The Internet police include more than 50,000 officers, each responsible for 4,000 Internet
users on average. They have set up several hundred web sites or home pages. In more
than 150 cities, they patrol web sites and forums to remind users to behave themselves
and censor on-line expression and information.