INTRODUCTION

• Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or

other information, on the basis that such material is considered
objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient as determined by a
government or private institution
• CCP controlled all the traditional mass media and the new media
(internet)
• Recently, Google’s battle with the Chinese government over internet
censorship and the Norwegian Nobel Committee's awarding of the
2010 Peace Prize to jailed Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo have also
increased international attention to censorship issues
History
• Censorship has started from the efforts of Emperor Qin to burn
Confucian texts
• Emperor Shi Huangdi ordered to restrict intellectuals from
questioning the power of the dynasty
• became an instrument for imperial control of the bureaucracy,
investigating acts of official corruption and misgovernment for the
emperor
• The yushi dafu 御史大夫 (Censor-in-chief) was the highest-ranking
state official supervising and controlling the officialdom of the empire
• to spread fear throughout the bureaucracy and preventing officials
from instituting any kind of radically new or innovative policies.
The Censorship Agenda
• Politic
• Censorship is an important tool in helping the CCP retain power in
China
• CCP have used censorship as a tool for political manipulation
• b) Social
• Protect the country's culture during the Cultural Revolution
• Foreign TV shows and films seen as outside influences
• blocking reports of issues that could incite social unrest
c) Economy
• Chinese ban on foreigner website (FB, YT etc) may have been done in
part to grant a business advantage to the websites' Chinese
competitors, helped the growth of homegrown services such as
Tencent and Sina Weibo
• Tightening controls on domestic media over China’s economic
problems to hide government weakness
Reference
• Censorship | Definition of censorship in English by Oxford Dictionaries. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/censorship
• Schlesinger, D., Henochowicz, A., & Wang, Y. (2016, March 17). Why Xi Jinping's Media Controls
Are 'Absolutely Unyielding'. Retrieved from https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/17/why-xi-
jinpings-media-controls-absolutely-unyielding-censorship-china-economy-speech/
• Calingaert, Daniel. "Authoritarianism vs. the Internet." Freedom House - Policy Review, 2010:
63-75
• Branigan, Tania. (March 22) “Google Raises Stakes in China Censorship Row”, Retrieved from
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/media-censorship-china2010
• Ministry of Public Security (1997). Computer Information Network and Internet Security,
Protection and Management Regulations. Retrieved 8 December 2018 from
http://newmedia.cityu.edu.hk/cyberlaw/gp3/pdf/law_security.pdf
• Zhao, Y. (2000). Caught in the Web: The public interest and the battle for control of China’s
information superhighway. Info, 2(1), 41-66. doi:10.1108/14636690010801311