Chinese Journalists Need a Press Law for Protection · Global Voices
China press freedom was at the lowest level in Reporters Without Borders’ 2015 index. Screen capture.
“In China, a journalist is an occupation for being mocked and menaced,” a former journalist in Beijing once told this author.
From reporters derided by the public for their subservience to the party, to investigative muckrakers intimidated for exposing the darker sides of China’s economic miracle, all journalists in China are hobbled by the absence of a media law defining their rights and responsibilities.
A March 10 press conference for the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), an annual session of China's main legislative body held in Beijing, threw the debate about China's lack of a comprehensive media law into the public spotlight once again.
A Chinese-American journalist from The China Press of the United States hit delegates at the congress with a barrage of questions:
我的问题是：新闻法已经说了几年，但是请问目前是否有时间表？如果有的话，可以公布一下吗？没有时间表，是为什么？ 为什么中国的新闻法出台这么难？
My questions: the press law has been in discussion for many years, I am wondering if there is any timetable for [developing legislation]? If there is one, could you publish it? If not, what is the reason? Why is it so hard to create a press law for China?
A NPC delegate swiftly brushed the questions aside, however: “Does any foreign journalist want to question our legislature's work? If not, today’s news conference ends now.”
A clip of the exchange broadcasted live on state-owned Chinese Central Television (CCTV) sparked a flurry of commentary on China's Twitter equivalent Weibo.
<PERSON>, an investigative journalist, was disappointed by the NPC delegate’s response:
从我2000年做新闻记者起，我们就呼吁出台《新闻法》，保障记者采访权益不受肮脏官员侵犯。现在16年过去了，我的师弟师妹们仍在呼吁《新闻法》，我看到这里，心中一阵悲凉。
Since I became a journalist in 2000, we have been calling for a press law that can protect journalists and their [right to] interview from pernicious officials. After sixteen years, my younger colleagues are also fighting the same battle. 368
I felt much woe when watching [this clip].
Worsening media environment
Before posing those questions at the congress, the same journalist raised the case of reporter <PERSON>, as an example of the deteriorating environment for Chinese journalists.
<PERSON>, who worked for the Lanzhou Morning Newspaper based in Gansu province, northwestern China, was well-known to locals for his years of investigative reporting.
<PERSON> was detained by police when reporting a fire accident in Wuwei, a city near the capital of Lanzhou in January.
Despite receiving a warning not to report on the fire, he still set off for the scene, where police were waiting to arrest him.
The Gansu provincial judicial department subsequently ordered <PERSON>'s detention on sex trafficking and extortion charges dating back to 2009.
Wuwei police finally released <PERSON> on probation after a month in jail, with the provincial judicial department dismissing his sex trafficking charge but insisting on the extortion charge. <PERSON> was asked to keep silent thereafter.
The provincial judicial department has not offered any evidence of <PERSON>'s alleged attempts to extort or defraud officials to the tune of 5,000 Yuan (nearly $800), despite calls from journalists and lawyers to do so.
The Chinese judicial system is famous for its ambiguity. Defendants are often coerced into accepting their charge as a condition of release or probation. 341