State Control

Reporters Without Borders expressed huge relief at the early release of journalist Gao Qinrong, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 1999 for exposing a corruption scandal implicating top provincial officials. Gao, who worked for the official Xinhua news agency, was arrested on 4 December 1998 after writing about corruption linked to an irrigation project in Shanxi province in central China...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has called on the Chinese government to reveal the names of the journalist and his three assistants from the southern Guizhou province who were reportedly arrested in Linfen, in the central province of Shanxi, on 3 November 2006 for investigating an explosion at the Luweitan coal mine. The organisation also asked the authorities to explain why they were...

The Zimbabwe government has directed the country’s largest journalism training school to accept only students who have completed a controversial national youth-service training programme — blamed by critics for brainwashing youths into zealots of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party. Churches and human rights groups say graduates of the training programme, which is run by former and...

China's leaders have hauled in 450 of the nation's media chiefs to order them to more closely toe the government line and step up their allegiance to the Communist Party, state press said on Wednesday. Chinese President Hu Jintao and other party leaders, including propaganda czar Li Changchun, met with the media chiefs at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday to reinforce the message...

BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese court has freed a journalist convicted of extortion for exposing local corruption but has refused to overturn his guilty verdict, his wife said Saturday. The Intermediate People's Court in the southern city of Shaoyang ordered Yang Xiaoqing released on bail last month after he served seven months of a one-year sentence, said his wife, Gong Jie. Last Tuesday, the court...

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has hailed the news that Yang Xiaoqing, a journalist based in Longhui in the southern province of Hunan, has been released as a result of a court decision in the nearby city of Shaoyang, on 17 October 2006. Detained since 22 January, Yang had been serving a one-year sentence for alleged extortion. "Guilty but free - this decision is a half-measure that fails to cover up the fact...

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's first foray into Web TV is a chance for foreign players like News Corp. to grab a slice of the world's second-largest Internet market, but winning official approval in a tightly-controlled market will be tough. Chinese regulations have so far limited foreign companies to small pockets of the country's satellite TV market. But firms are now eyeing Internet Protocol...

Two senior editors at a Nasdaq-listed Chinese internet portal have been fired after an online survey revealed deep discontent among their fellow citizens. More than 65 per cent of Chinese respondents to the survey would choose to be born in another country if they could live their lives over again, the poll at Netease.com indicated. Chief news editor Tang Yan and chief commentary editor Liu...

Pushed on the backfoot over its decision on new controls over the distribution of news, photographs and graphics by foreign news agencies, China has called it is only a "transitional arrangement" and a government department would eventually take over the responsibility. GIVEN A BAD NAME AND INCARCERATED: Protesters hold placards featuring a portrait of Straits Times correspondent Ching Cheong...

A NEWSPAPER cartoonist has dared to defy a taboo on depictions of China’s leaders — and has had his wrist slapped. Kuang Biao, who works for the News Express in the southern city of Guangzhou, has been suspended for a month for his cartoon, which showed a weeping Hu Jintao, the Chinese President. Mr Kuang is allowed to continue to draw — but only under a pseudonym. He told The Times that he always...