Sep 12, 2006

Taiwan: China's New Measures to Control Foreign Media Blasted


Taiwan on Monday condemned China's new measures to control the foreign media, saying China feared the free flow of information would endanger Bejing's dictatorship.

TaipeiTaiwan, on Monday 11september, condemned China's new measures to control the foreign media, saying China was faced with a serious internal crisis and feared the free flow of information would endanger Bejing's dictatorship.

'China issued the measures hoping to maintain stability. But the gap in wealth between city and and countryside caused by China's economic development has posed a serious crisis to the Chinese Communist Party's leadership,' the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a statement.

'China's measures to control the freedom of expression and its sentencing of reporters cannot be tolerated by the free world. We call on the international community to jointly urge China to remove the restrictions on the freedom of expression,' the MAC statement said.

On Sunday, China announced rules requiring foreign media to seek approval from the state-run Xinhua news agency to distribute news, pictures and graphics domestically, and warned against reports that 'endanger national security.'

The rules said foreign news agencies should not carry reports that 'endanger national security, fan ethnic hatred and racial discrimination or promote cults and superstition.'

News that violates national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity is also to elicit punishment under the new measures.

Violators of the rules are to receive a warning or have their licenses suspended by the Chinese authorities.

The regulations also apply to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan news organizations.