China Law Blog has a great post this morning about new/old regulations that make the Xinhua news service the sole “media gatekeeper” for all foreign press reports, pictures, and anything else over the wires into the PRC. Naturally, there has been hue and cry over “increased” Chinese media censorship, especially following in the wake of the conviction of NYT researcher Zhao Yan and the law passed earlier this year making it a crime to report on “sudden events” such as pollution accidents, riots, natural disasters or any other possible portent of dynastic change.
The CLB post has a collection of links to China media watchers who argue that this as much about money as censorship. Xinhua wants to preserve its monopoly on wire service reports in the face of the growing clout of other media organizations in the PRC.
Of particular note is a link by the guys at CLB to a blog I had not had the pleasure of reading before but have now put on my “weekly check list:” Silicon Hutong. Silicon Hutong has a great analysis of this situation (see the CLB post for a shortened version.)
There are some terrific current events blogs out there. I hope these writers keep up the great work.
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