China: Beijing Moves To Tighten Ban On Private Media Funding
Location: China
Date: October 18, 2021
The Coalition For Women In Journalism is concerned over Beijing’s move to ban private investment in news media amid stringent regulations already in place. We are cognizant of the state’s control and interference in the country’s existing media landscape and have been monitoring the situation. The CFWIJ urges Beijing to drop plans to ban non-state investment (private companies) in the establishing, operations or broadcasting of news agencies, newspapers, radio or television stations and related events.
Earlier this month, the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) moved to prohibit private funding for the news and media sectors besides banning investment in broadcast of content - including live events - related to politics, economy, the military, diplomacy, society, culture, science and technology, health, education and sports, among others.
The country’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, released its “2021 Negative List of Market Access,” a list of industries annually updated where private capital is banned or restricted, according to news reports. The ministerial-level department’s report was released to seek public feedback after which the CCP and China’s administrative authority - the State Council - will release the finalized list. The ban is expected to be enforced in late November or December.
The current list also prohibits private investment in social media operations of news organizations, including news agencies and publishers, radio stations, television stations or websites. “There has been such a rule for a long time, but the actual enforcement has been selective [in scope and power],” Fang Kecheng, an assistant journalism professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong was quoted as saying.
Private capital was first banned from news media by the State Council in 2005. Then, in 2017, the Cyberspace Administration of China, led by President Xi Jinping, also barred the use of private capital in news reporting. The existing restrictions applied largely to traditional publishing, however, leaving space for privately run online news media to grow over the years and for private companies to remain involved to varying degrees. The updated list further restricts non-state investment in the news and media sectors amid a state crackdown on “irrational expansion of capital” and fresh content clean-up campaigns.
The CFWIJ sees Beijing’s plans to effectively cut off independent news platforms from non-state funding as a serious violation of freedom of speech. The move to increase dependence on state-owned media is a further encroachment on press freedoms in a heavily regulated environment.
The CFWIJ has been closely monitoring Beijing's transgressions against journalists and the freedom of the press. China ranked 177th out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index 2021. At least 122 journalists in China are under some form of detention. We urge Beijing to lift its stifling regulations and controls on the news industry and protect the rights of journalists and refrain from imposing further restrictions. A free and independent media must be allowed to thrive.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
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