By Associated Press | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
March 11, 2010

China will toughen requirements for reporters by launching a new certification system that includes training in Marxist and communist theories of news, a media official said, citing problems with the current crop of mainland journalists.

The South China Morning Post reported Thursday that Li Dongdong, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, said some reporters were giving Chinese journalism a bad name because they hadn't been properly trained. She didn't give any specific examples.

Similar comments by Li were posted on the Web site of the official Xinhua News Agency.

Li told Xinhua on Monday that the new qualification system would ensure all journalists learn socialist and Marxist theories of journalism and media ethics.

"Comrades who are going to be working on journalism's front lines must learn theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics and be taught Marx's view on news, plus media ethics and Communist Party discipline on news and propaganda," Li was quoted as saying.

Communist theories of journalism say media should serve the communist leadership and not undermine its initiatives. Many democracies embrace a model where reporters serve a watchdog role independent of the government.

Chinese media have become more freewheeling since newspapers and broadcasters began relying increasingly on advertising instead of just Communist Party patronage for their survival. There have been problems with reporters demanding payment for positive news coverage or to bury a story, and instances of reporters fabricating news.

Others have run afoul of the government for reporting accurately on stories that officials didn't want publicized. Government censors keep a tight grip on news content and routinely ban reporting on issues deemed too politically sensitive or destabilizing.

A senior editor with the Beijing-based Economic Observer said this week he had been punished for co-authoring an editorial that urged the government to scrap an unpopular household registration system, saying it discriminated against the poor.

>> Original Source

By Radio Free Asia
March 08, 2010

China's premier promises a more open society, but his speech to parliament meets with skepticism.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has called for greater oversight of government by ordinary citizens and media, but analysts and netizens have voiced skepticism that real change is on the way.

During his annual work report to the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing on Friday, Wen called on China's leadership to create an environment in which it is possible for people to criticize and supervise the government.

"We must create the conditions under which people are allowed to criticize the government, to supervise the government," Wen told delegates to the country's parliament.

"At the same time, we must bring out the ability of the media to exercise a supervisory role, so that power is exercised in broad daylight."

As he spoke, Beijing police held the capital under a tight security clampdown, ensuring that anyone with a grievance against the government was kept well away from the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square.

Netizens joked online that Wen's promises sounded like the self-development promises made by primary school children in China: "These things are only ever a goal," one quipped.

Wen called on members of the ruling Communist Party to be scrupulous over their use of public money, following a number of high-profile online exposes of the lifestyles of high-ranking officials.

Call for official discipline

"All of the leadership, especially high-ranking officials, must resolutely implement guidelines delivered by central government regarding personal finances and property of the individual," said Wen.

"This includes their income, housing, investments, and the careers taken up by their spouses, sons, and daughters."

Wen also promised to strengthen channels for consultation with Chinese citizens, who should be given the opportunity to oversee the government's activities.

China's army of petitioners say they have repeatedly been stonewalled, detained in "black jails," beaten, and harrassed by the authorities if they try to take a complaint against local government actions to a higher level of government.

"Does central government have any measures to ensure that people who report local officials online aren't hounded and detained, or pursued by local mafia?" wrote one petitioner from the eastern city of Ningbo.

Press freedom lacking

Another wrote from Chengdu that the government should first guarantee the media's right to carry out normal reporting and newsgathering activities.

"Officials involved in a situation have the responsibility to answer questions from journalists. Those who refuse to do so should be subjected to harsh punishment: at the very least a demotion or a pay cut for failing to carry out administrative orders."

But Hong Kong media reports said Chinese media have already been forbidden to report on any negative news from Beijing during the annual parliamentary sessions.

According to the Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper, petitions from retired members of the People's Liberation Army, from workers in certain industries, and from evictees in Beijing are forbidden topics.

And the difficulties faced by migrant workers in getting schooling for their children in Beijing were also struck off the list of permissible news items for traditional media and online news providers.

Beijing University economics professor Xia Yeliang said that Wen's promises of greater academic freedom in China's universities have also been heard before, and remain undelivered.

Twitter police

"They have been talking about reforming China's education system for many years now," Xia said.

"Now, they are saying once again that they want to turn the universities into top-flight universities [with no Party presence and academic freedom], but they haven't said when they will achieve this by."

One Beijing-based blogger, known online by the nickname Zhang Shuji, said China's Internet police regularly patrol micro-blogging services like Twitter.

"They won't necessarily take part in the discussion. They just keep a record," he said.

"It's a bit like using [the popular chat service] QQ. The Web police just make a back-up copy of all the chats. Then, if they get a subpoena, they just print it off for evidence that the person concerned was expressing opinions tantamount to incitement."

China had more than 40,000 active Twitter users as of last week, with more than 200,000 people registered on the service. More than half of Twitter's most-followed users are civil rights and pro-democracy activists from China.

Editors cautioned

An official report at the end of last year identified microblogging as one of the most powerful drivers of public opinion in China.

Sina's home-based microblogging service employs a team of more than 300 people, not just to monitor what is being posted, but to set up blocks and filters.

One of the coordinators of the community Internet blog Kenengba, A Chan, wrote: "Sina's microblogging service used to take down my posts without notifying me. Later on, they started watching everything I wrote, but they still didn't notify me."

In recent days, editors from 13 different regional state-run newspapers have been handed official warnings after they published a joint editorial calling for an end to the household registration, or hukou, system, which they said discriminates against rural residents who move to large cities to work.

Wen pledged in his speech to abolish some restrictions on migrant workers in smaller towns and cities, but stopped short of abolishing the hukou system, saying the authorities will take a "step-by-step"
approach.

Beijing University's Xia said the same pledge has already been heard from China's leaders.

"We have heard them say this many times now, over many years, to win a bit of applause in the moment, and nothing has come of it so far," Xia said. "If they really could do what they are saying, there wouldn't be so much discontent among ordinary Chinese people."

"Right now there is a huge gap between what the government says it's going to do, and what it actually does," he said.

Original reporting in Mandarin by Xin Yu and Qiao Long, and in Cantonese by Hai Nan. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

>> Original Source

Michael Evans, Giles Whittell | TimesOnLine (United Kingdom)
March 08, 2010

Urgent warnings have been circulated throughout Nato and the European Union for secret intelligence material to be protected from a recent surge in cyberwar attacks originating in China.

The attacks have also hit government and military institutions in the United States, where analysts said that the West had no effective response and that EU systems were especially vulnerable because most cyber security efforts were left to member states.

Nato diplomatic sources told The Times: "Everyone has been made aware that the Chinese have become very active with cyber-attacks and we're now getting regular warnings from the office for internal security." The sources said that the number of attacks had increased significantly over the past 12 months, with China among the most active players.

In the US, an official report released on Friday said the number of attacks on Congress and other government agencies had risen exponentially in the past year to an estimated 1.6 billion every month.

The Chinese cyber-penetration of key offices in both Nato and the EU has led to restrictions in the normal flow of intelligence because there are concerns that secret intelligence reports might be vulnerable.

Sources at the Office for Cyber Security at the Cabinet Office in London, set up last year, said there were two forms of attack: those focusing on disrupting computer systems and others involving "fishing trips" for sensitive information. A special team has been set up at GCHQ, the government communications headquarters in Gloucestershire, to counter the growing cyber-threat affecting intelligence material. The team becomes operational this month.

British and American cyber defences are among the most sophisticated in the world, but "the EU is less competent", James Lewis, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said. "The porousness of the European institutions makes them a good target for penetration. They are of interest to the Chinese on issues from arms sales and nuclear non-proliferation to Tibet and energy."

The lack of routine intelligencesharing between the US and the EU also contributes to the vulnerability of European systems, another analyst said. "Because of Britain's intelligence-sharing relationship with America our systems have to be up to their standards in a way that some of the European systems don't," he explained.

Jonathan Evans, Director-General of MI5, warned in 2007 that several states were actively involved in large-scale cyber-attacks. Although he did not specify which states were involved, security officials have indicated that China now poses the gravest threat. Beijing has denied making such attacks.

Robert Mueller, FBI Director, has warned that, in addition to the danger of foreign states making cyber-attacks, al-Qaeda could in the future pose a similar threat. In a speech to a security conference last week, Mr Mueller said terrorist groups had used the internet to recruit members and to plan attacks, but added: "Terrorists have \ shown a clear interest in pursuing hacking skills and they will either train their own recruits or hire outsiders with an eye towards combining physical attacks with cyber-attacks."

He said that a cyber-attack could have the same impact as a "well-placed bomb". Mr Mueller also accused "nation-state hackers" of seeking out US technology, intelligence, intellectual property and even military weapons and strategies.To help to fight the growing threat, the Office of Cyber Security, set up last year as part of the Government's national security strategy, liaises with America's so-called cyber czar, Howard Schmidt, who was appointed by President Obama to protect sensitive government computers.

British officials said that everyone in sensitive jobs had been warned to be especially cautious about disseminating intelligence and other classified information. Whether British intelligence is involved in retaliatory attacks is never confirmed. However, officials said that there was a significant difference between being part of an information war and indulging in aggressive attacks to disrupt another country's computer systems.

Dr Lewis said that neither the US nor any of its Western allies had formed an effective response to the Chinese threat, which has its origins in a massive boost to Chinese technology ordered by Deng Xiaoping, the late Chinese leader, in 1986. The West's own cyber offensives have so far been directed largely at terrorists rather than nation states, giving China virtually free rein to penetrate Western systems with its own world-class hackers and increasingly popular Chinese-made components. "You almost have to admire them," Dr Lewis said. "They have been very consistent in their goals."

>> Original Source

By Michael Wines | The New York Times
March 02, 2010

Chinese security agents in Sichuan Province detained Liao Yiwu, a prominent author and critic of the government, as he prepared to fly Monday to a literary festival in Germany, human rights activists said.

It was the 13th time Mr. Liao had been prevented from leaving the country. The Associated Press reported that he had been placed under house arrest after being questioned by security agents for four hours.

"How can this happen?" The A.P. quoted him as saying. "It's a cultural event, nothing political. Such drama!"

Telephone calls on Tuesday to Mr. Liao's home in rural Chengdu produced a recording saying that the line was temporarily unavailable. Calls to his cellphone went unanswered.

Mr. Liao was removed from a plane at Chengdu's airport as he prepared to fly to Germany to attend lit.Cologne, one of Europe's largest literary festivals, where he was to read from one of his books, "Miss Hello and the Farm Emperor: Chinese Society From the Bottom."

"The reason for inviting Mr. Liao was simple: he's a great writer," Traudle Berger, a spokeswoman at the Cologne Festival, said in an interview on Tuesday. "And China should be proud of such a great writer."

Ms. Berger said Mr. Liao's scheduled reading would still take place, with an actor assuming his role. Proceeds from the ticketed event will be donated to the human rights group Amnesty International, she said.

Last September, Mr. Liao was barred from traveling to Berlin to attend an event affiliated with the Frankfurt Book Fair, at which China was designated the honored guest.

A poet, screenwriter and new-journalism author, Mr. Liao, 51, is one of China's best known and most outspoken writers. Many of his works tell stories of people who have been left behind in the nation's rush to economic and political prominence, characters that include prostitutes, a grave robber, and a lavatory attendant.

His 2008 book "The Corpse Walker," another view of Chinese society's lower rungs, was published to international acclaim. His works are banned in China, but he has gained a large underground following, and pirated versions of his works can be found in some Chinese bookstores.

Mr. Liao was imprisoned for four years in the early 1990s after writing an epic poem, "Massacre," which denounced the Chinese government's suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. In December 2007, when he traveled to Beijing to receive an award from the Independent Chinese PEN Center, a writers' rights organization, he was detained by the police and sent back to Chengdu.

In a text-message exchange last month, Mr. Liao said he had repeatedly met with Chengdu security officials to negotiate for permission to attend the Cologne event, but was told that he had been blacklisted by Beijing officials and forbidden to travel abroad.

In a Monday interview with the German network Deutsche Welle, Mr. Liao said he was seated on the plane at Chengdu's airport on Monday morning when a flight attendant approached and told him that "someone is looking for you."

"I asked who it was, and she said it would be best if I got my luggage," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "I got my bags, and while I was walking to the cabin door, I saw a police officer."

Mr. Liao said the police told him, "You cannot continue doing whatever you want."

"I told them there will be many readers at the festival," he said. "I would like to go and meet them and read some of my own pieces and play the traditional Chinese mouth organ, the xiao. I said it was purely a literature festival and nothing political. They said they understood and were only doing their job following orders from the top."

On Monday, the PEN American Center, which like the Chinese organization is one of 145 affiliates of the International PEN Center, called on China's president, Hu Jintao, to lift restrictions on Mr. Liao and other writers.

"It is hard to figure what the Chinese government hopes to accomplish by preventing one of its most compelling literary voices from meeting with international colleagues and readers," Larry Siems, who directs the American center's Freedom to Write program, said in a written statement.

>> Complete Report

By David Pierson - Los Angeles Times
February 24, 2010

Applicants will have to verify their identities with regulators and have their photographs taken. A government ministry will review the requests.

In a move that will give the government new powers to police the Internet, China will require individuals seeking to establish personal websites to verify their identities with regulators and have their photographs taken.

The order lifts a ban on registering personal sites that was issued in December as part of a campaign to crack down on Internet pornography.

To apply, an individual must visit his or her local Internet service provider's office, submit an identification card and pose for a photograph. Applications will then be sent to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for review.

The new requirements add another layer of oversight in a country that is already deeply criticized for having some of the world's strictest Internet controls. Regulators have also discussed requiring stricter identity verification to purchase mobile phones and leave comments online.

Google Inc. threatened to quit China last month partly because it was fed up with having to censor its Chinese search engine.

Officials say the new rule is needed to stifle Internet porn.

"Internet security needs to be cured from its roots," Li Yizhong, head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, was quoted as saying in a state news article Sunday.

Critics say the new requirement has little to do with pornography and instead serves to increase controls and discourage web users from engaging in any activity that challenged the government.

For all its complexity, experts say the key to the government's controls is not its filtering technology or registration requirements, but the willingness of individuals to censor themselves.

"This new measure comes as no surprise, since a key element of control has always been about how to use disciplinary punishment and surveillance to create a self-censorship environment," said Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at UC Berkeley. "The government feels increasingly insecure with their ability to control the Internet, therefore more and more policies and controlling practices are aimed at enhancing a self-policing environment."

>> Complete Report