According to the committee to protect Journalists China is the 5th most censored country in the world.
CPJ:
Leadership:Â President Xi Jinping, in office since 2013.
How censorship works: China has the world’s most extensive and sophisticated censorship apparatus. For nearly two decades, the country has been among the world’s top jailers of journalists, with at least 47 behind bars as of December 1, 2018. Both privately and state-owned news outlets are under the authorities’ supervision, and those who fail to follow the Chinese Communist Party’s directives are suspended or otherwise punished, according to newsreports. Since 2017, no website or social media account is allowed to provide news service on the internet without the Cyberspace Administration of China’s permission. Internet users are blocked from foreign search engines, news websites, and social media platforms by the Great Firewall. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in March 2018 announced new regulations that ban unauthorized VPNs, which internet users rely on to circumvent the firewall. Authorities monitor domestic social media networks, using surveillance programs and trained censor professionals. Foreign social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are banned; they are accessible via VPNs, but censorship efforts have extended to knocking on doors to order people to delete their tweets, according to The Washington Post. International journalists working in China face digital and human surveillance, with visas delayed or denied. In August 2018, the Hong Kong Journalists Association said press freedom in the territory had deteriorated under the “one country” policy, with the media practicing more self-censorship without laws to safeguard freedom of information.
Lowlight: In the northwest Xinjiang region, where the authorities have detained up to three million Uighur and Turkic Muslims in so-called reeducation camps, surveillance and censorship are widespread. Journalists in the region risk imprisonment for everyday reporting, on charges such as being a “two-faced” party official. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China in January 2019 said many members who travel to the region are followed and surveilled.
Methodology of the study:
Methodology: The 10 Most Censored Countries list assesses direct and indirect government censorship based on CPJ research, as well as the expertise of the organization’s staff. Countries are evaluated based on a series of benchmarks, including:
- Absence of and/or restrictions on privately owned or independent media
- Criminal defamation laws; criminal restrictions on the dissemination of false news
- Blocking of websites
- Jamming of foreign broadcasts
- Blocking of foreign correspondents
- Surveillance of journalists by authorities
- Restrictions on journalists’ movements
- License requirements to conduct journalism
- Restrictions on electronic recording and dissemination
- Targeted hacking or trolling campaigns
Meanwhile, the Mainstream Press is playing defense for this authoritarian regime. The Mainstream Press refuses to call out China for really anything they do. Every issue they claim to care about China is one of the most abusers in. Whether you are looking at Free Speech issues, labor issues, climate issues or imperialist aspirations China is being given a pass.
President Trump isn’t a threat to the free press but China is and it is about time the American Media covers this.
The Palmieri Report is a Pro-America News Outlet founded by Jacob Palmieri two years ago at the age of 19. Since its founding, it has gotten over 200k pages views and over 20k followers. The Palmieri Report is dedicated to debunking the lies spread by the left-wing Mainstream Media.
