Internal media in the People's Republic of China

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The internal media system in the People's Republic of China , in which certain magazines are published exclusively for government and party officials, provide information and analyzes that are not accessible to the public.

As He Qingliang documents in Chapter 4 of the book "The Fog of Censorship - Media Control in China", there are three different categories of "secret and internal documents" (内部 文件; pinyin : nèibù wénjiàn ), each category with different political and social functions . 1. Official documents, 2. Instructions on current developments, 3. Reference material. The first and second categories of classified documents are used in government work, while the third category, "internal reference materials," is in fact news or rigorously filtered news about Chinese society that only certain rank party and government officials can read . This system deprives the public of their most basic right to information.

Types of internally circulated documents

China's secret and internal documents can be divided into three categories, each with different political and social functions:

  • Official documents (正式 文件; zhèngshì wénjiàn ) - this includes binding guidelines, ordinances and notices from the party, government or military organization that are sent to lower levels. Documents from the CPC Central Committee are the most authoritative.
  • Instructions on current developments - from the party leadership, government or military departments, including reports to higher levels and instructions to lower levels. The most popular report in the Chinese media is the Communist Party's Propaganda Department's monthly circular (yueping), which lists sanctions against media for violating the rules. This recurring measure by the propaganda department admonishes the media organizations to comply with the rules and causes them to exercise "self-censorship".
  • Reference material - published by the relatively large and high-ranking news organizations (such as party or government newspapers). Consistent with propaganda discipline, internal reference materials obscure matters that are detrimental to the image of the party or government, or to social stability and unity, or that are unsuitable for publication, such as bribery and corruption, social unrest and the largest cases of business fraud. They often include investigative reports from journalists with a sense of responsibility who have overcome numerous difficulties to conduct interviews. Internal reference material has only a few dozen copies in circulation and is distributed for advice to chairpersons and their departments. The most authoritarian are the three types of internal references handled by the Xinhua News Agency.

The Law on the Protection of State Secrets of the PRC (保守 国家 秘密 法; bǎoshǒu guójiā mìmì fǎ ) Article 9 defines three categories of state secrets: top secret (绝密; juémì), secret (机密; jīmì) and confidential (秘密; mìmì ). A fourth category stipulates that internal reference materials can be read by Chinese citizens, but not by foreigners. The levels of confidentiality and areas of application for government agencies at each level are set out in Article 2. These three types of internal documents are issued by: every Chinese administrative region and party organization such as committees and disciplinary committees; Government organizations such as people's congresses; Governments and advisory congresses and military organizations such as military districts and their provincial military districts and the hundreds of agencies that are subordinate to them.

According to Amnesty International, the legal definition of state secrets is vague, allowing the Chinese authorities a wide discretion to detain people who peacefully exercise their right to freedom of expression.

The level of classification is linked to the administrative levels of the party and the government in China . The higher the administrative level of the issuing authority, the more mysterious the document. In local governments, the issuing levels are province (省; shěng ), region (or city directly subordinate to a province) (地区; dìqū or or 省 直辖市; shěngzhíxiáshì) and county (县; xiàn). Ranks within the government bodies are ministry (部; bù ), office (局; jú ) and office (处; chù ). Ranks in the military are troops (军; jūn), division (师; shī ) and regiment (团; tuán ). The most authoritarian documents are drafted by the Central Committee to convey instructions from leaders of the Communist Party. Documents with "Communist Party of China Central Committee Document" (中共中央 文件; zhōnggòng zhōngyāng wénjiàn ) written in red letters above are the most authoritarian.

Internal news releases for senior party members and government officials

There are four types of publications in this category. The first three types are internal news, processed in the Chinese news control system and distributed through the second editorial office of the domestic news division of Xinhua News Agency and the office of the editor-in-chief of People's Daily. The fourth type of publication is dedicated to policy proposals and reports to officials of relatively low rank:

  1. Domestic Developments (国内 动态; guónèi dòngtài ) is processed once or twice a day by the Xinhua News Agency to cover important domestic events and important high-level proposals from the CCP. Generally called the Great Reference (大 参考; dà cānkǎo), it is 2 to 6 pages long and is distributed to the heads of the Central Committee, officials with ministerial rank, and to provincial governors and party secretaries. This top secret document must be returned after reading; those who lose it take political responsibility. While unlikely and prohibited by the authorities, some of the content could leak overseas through word of mouth. Domestic Developments is a bulletin board for the leaders that provides detailed analysis of matters such as certain social disorders that are not reported in the mass media, or at least not on a level as detailed in Domestic Developments.
  2. Internal reference (内部 参考; nèibù cānkǎo ) is processed twice a week by the Xinhua news agency. It has 40 to 60 pages that report on the important domestic developments and announcements. This secret document is circulated down to the regional and departmental levels and is the only official channel for delivering domestic secret information to middle and senior party members.
  3. Internal reference selection (内部 选编; nèibù xuǎnbiān ) is processed weekly by the Xinhua news agency and has 30 to 40 pages. It supplies confidential information to basic cadres down to the level of district and community leaders as well as to officials at the higher regional and regimental level. By the mid-1990s, very little real confidential matters appeared in it and it was no longer collected after reading it. The readership was expanded to include deputy office manager.
  4. Internal reading (内部 参阅; nèibù cānyuè ) is processed by the People's Daily. Internal Readings is a classified news document that contains policy proposals and some survey reports on sensitive issues such as government corruption and studies of problems with village governments. From the mid-1990s, cadres at the office level of the vice directors had permission to subscribe to the internal readings privately.

The news monopoly ( monopoly ) has enabled the CCP to filter the news, although it has become more difficult since the Internet emerged in the 1990s. Security became weaker and many units no longer collect Internal Reference Picks or Internal Readings . However, private individuals are not allowed to have any secret material or anything secret and some people have been prosecuted for this offense. The party can expand the scope of state secrets at will. He Qinglian writes that in some cases, former open materials have become secret. After June 4, 1989 , in order to protect China's image, many documents released by the Communist Party's Propaganda Department to guide the media were classified as top secret, tiered secret, or were given orally.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Basina Maria Victorovna: Media in China. education materials.com, 2005, accessed August 6, 2016.
  2. ^ A b He Qinglian: The Fog of Censorship - Media Control in China. A Human Rights in China Publication, Chapter 4, 2008, p. 69, accessed August 10, 2016.
  3. ^ State Secrets Laws and Regulations of the PRC. Human Rights in China, accessed August 30, 2016.
  4. ^ Administrative Law of the People's Republic of China. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  5. ↑ Amnesty International: Freedom of Expression - In China Just Wishful Thinking. ( Memento of the original from August 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. amnesty.de, 2007, accessed August 30, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.amnesty.de