evaporated after new restrictions were imposed by the government.

 

“Multiple new regulations were issued throughout the year, many seeking to control online content and traditional media’s reporting of online information,” reads the IFJ’s report. “The authorities themselves acknowledged that online communications presented a growing challenge to national security and social stability. Online surveillance was stepped up, websites were entirely or partly closed, online social networks were shut down, online news portals were censored, online journalists and bloggers were detained and arrested.”

 

Authorities also tried to limit the press coverage of the riots in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China. Both domestic and foreign journalists were only allowed in the area through arranged visits by the government. Reporters were “quarantined” at an officially designated hotel, and their internet and phone access was restricted.

 

In addition to actions taken by the government, many Chinese media news sources continued to practice self-censorship to avoid getting into trouble. This affected coverage of two major events in 2009: the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, and the 50th anniversary of Tibet’s failed uprising against China in

1959.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

China Clings to Control: Press Freedom in 2009 (International Federation of Journalists) (pdf)