Media law in China

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:Law

Document 1

10 Research questions…………………………………………………………………………. 11 The scope of the research……………………………………………………………………. 11 Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………. 12 Recommendation…………………………………………………………………………. …20 Summary……………………………………………………………………………………. 2 There is a high difference between social media and paper-based media in terms of quality, accessibility, interactivity, and performance. Some of the most popular social media outlets are Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram and Snap Chat. Social media has its advantages and disadvantages as it has been noted by observers. It can be used as an effective tool for communication in organizations, political parties, different individuals and advocacy groups and governments. However, social media has heavily been linked to matters concerning cyberbullying, online harassment and depression. 7 Literature review Out of sixty-five countries that represent over eighty-eight percent of internet users in the world, China was listed last in press freedom by Freedom House for the second consecutive time in 2016.

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6 Experts say that weekly, guidelines on censorship are circulated to media providers and prominent editors from the propaganda department of the Communist party. During periods of controversy, certain websites are temporarily blacked out or completely blocked by the government if it is felt that they are potentially dangerous, and this included materials that threaten the country’s political stability. Issues that could incite social unrest such as corruption, ethnic unrest, environmental scandal, and religious reports could also be blocked. 8 This also applies to international companies’ websites that the government sees not fit for the country. The law required every internet user, including organization and companies both local and international to abide by those laws and regulations. 12 Internet companies in China are now required to sign the Self-Regulation public pledge whose rules are even more firm compared to those on the white paper.

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There have been different opinions by different Chinese leaders over the years and during these periods, the media law has experienced both relaxation and constriction and since President Xi Jinping came into power, all forms of media censorship have been tightened. The party and state-owned news outlines, therefore, received a new media policy in 2016 which outlined that the thoughts, politics, and actions of the party must be adhered to by the state media. 13 Before foreign correspondents report to China, they are required to obtain permission and this has been used as a roadblock by the government to prevent journalists from reporting sensitive issues taking place in the country. 16 Recently, there was a shocking release of sets of standards on what is morally fit for public consumption regarding the media of China.

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The hip-hop culture has been addressed as a low taste content in the recent crackdown of media content by the regulatory authority in the country and therefore banned. 17 This has included the banning of lifestyle, actors, musicians, and celebrities who associate themselves with the lifestyle that has been described by the ruling party, as to have fallen out of line with the standards of morality. 18 The director of SAPPRFT discusses that the Chinese media is run by four major rules in respect to the decency of their standards. These rules include the following: actors whose hearts and morality are not in line with the party and whose principles cannot be described as noble are not to be accommodated. In this study, both the primary and secondary sources will be applied in order to provide comprehensive information on the research.

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Court opinions and legal briefs are part of the primary sources while the secondary sources include textbooks and journals that are related to the research. Delimitations of the research Some of the problems that were faced during the research include: i. The validity and reliability of the research sources: as much as some primary sources are reliable, some secondary sources are also reliable. However, when no other data was available some sources could not be reliable. What information should be banned from Chinese media? The scope of the research The various methods through which the Chinese citizens practice their rights of freedom of expression through hip-hop music and culture are discussed in this dissertation. The international norms recognize that the right to freedom to expression is a basic civil and political right and which guarantees the citizens to take part in the government of the country.

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For that reason, the freedom of the Chinese people to express themselves through the hip-hop genre freely will be examined in this paper. Analysis Social media’s most active environment in the world is China which enjoys the largest internet base with over five hundred million users, doubling the number of users in the United States. 21 The users of social media in China spend more than forty percent of their entire day being online and research has shown that this number continues to rise rapidly. A report released by Amnesty International between 2010 and 2012 have shown that China has the largest recorded number of imprisoned journalists in the world. 28 Censorship of media in China has impacted the social-economic life of the people.

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The further banning of the hip-hop culture recently has created a climate of fear among the people who associate themselves with this genre after it has been described as distasteful by the ruling party. The internet is becoming increasingly influential compared to the traditional media in China and therefore academic discussions are warranted in the relationship between the traditional media and the internet. The fact that traditional media is under strict censorship, the internet has provided alternative means for the people to express sensitive issues affecting them. After fifteen years, internet users had grown from zero to almost thirty percent as it was expected by the Chinese government. 34 Chinese online users have found numerous techniques to dodge censors despite the systematic controls of news.

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Several software programs that allow a proxy server to be set up by the Chinese online users are becoming popular since they avoid controls by the censors. These programs include Psiphon, Ultra surf and free gate. 35 Nevertheless, the crackdown on the system by the government has led users to formulate other methods such as the addition of new IP addresses into the host file. 39 However, reports have to it that tightening of freedom has been the subject behind the reasoning of upholding the country's social values that are forced into the people by the party. The way the black culture is perceived in China is a concern that has made the hip-hop culture ban to be unique. This is because hip-hop has its roots from the black society who are perceived to be dangerous to China.

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40 The young generation has taken onto social media to express themselves on how they feel about the genre with some claiming that their feelings can be made up for what they have lacked in education and that hip-hop is their salvation. The youth culture has been celebrated through rap songs when regional dialects have taken off among millennials and thus nationalism is notable. 43 Nowadays, people coming together outside the government’s control is what is being managed by media regulation organizations. For that reason, the media industry insiders cannot predict on when the announcement of new regulations will be made, for what period that these regulations will be enforced and what are the likely impacts to be experienced. However, they are sure that anything that is likely to capture the attention of young people will always be under scrutiny by the censors.

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44 Concerns have been raised based on the law that was used in the banning of the hip-hop culture with some people claiming that there was no basis or aesthetics for the move since there is no significant benchmark that aligns the moral and psychological ideas of the people to that of the party. This move has been described by critiques that it is a way for the government to go back to the Cultural Revolution era or a period before that whereby anything that was not in accordance with the thoughts of Mao Zedong could not be performed or sung. People should stop thinking of themselves as passive internet users but should proclaim their rights to information access and privacy just the same way that people fought for civil and human rights in the past.

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The role of the Chinese government needs to be examined regarding the internet policy, media, and information surveillance and compared to with other Asian countries. The analysis and judgment of experts who wish to advise the Chinese government are limited when their own academics obstruct free research and therefore it loses more from censorship compared to other Asian countries. Even though censorship can be of an advantage, the rules and regulations should be relaxed a little bit. Summary The media technology has made things easier throughout the history of its invention and therefore made communication better among people. And while China still has good relationships with other countries in terms of economic affairs, it should investigate its social ties with these countries and try to improve them Bibliography Bamman, David, Brendan O'Connor, and Noah Smith.

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