China bans 'original' news reporting, demanding that only official government propaganda is now legal news

Friday, July 29, 2016 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: China censorship, freedom of the press, independent news

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(NaturalNews) The piracy capital of the world is cracking down on internet freedom of speech, proposing new guidelines that would censor so-called "original" news reporting that conflicts with state-sanctioned propaganda peddling a different narrative.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) says two major news portals, Sohu.com Inc. and NetEase Inc., have already been ordered to stop publishing articles because they have "seriously violated" China's existing internet regulations, which apparently prohibit all content that results in "huge negative effects" to the reputation of the state.

It's the latest attempt by the Chinese government, which only allows state-run media sources to disseminate news, to keep a lid on anything real that might be occurring in the world. Hilariously, two of China's largest news sources, both run by the government, issued identical, word-for-word notices about the offending "violations," and how they would be handled.

According to Bloomberg, CAC told the two independent news outlets being targeted to shut down their "current-affairs news" operations on Friday – this, after previously warning another source, known as Tencent QQ, an instant messaging service in China, to do the same thing just days before. WeChat, another Chinese phone and instant messaging service, is also in the censorship cross hairs.

As China's economy continues to boom, so is its people's appetite for news – real news – which just isn't jiving with the country's authoritarian government. The only news that can be legally reported is that which is issued and approved by the Chinese government, of course – and all in the interest of supporting the ruling communist party, says current Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"The sweeping ban gives authorities near-absolute control over online news and political discourse, in keeping with a broader crackdown on information increasingly distributed over the web and mobile devices," Bloomberg writer Keith Zhai reported.

Don't forget: the country that makes most of our goods is a communist dictatorship

The biggest threat to propaganda, of course, is information that might blow the lid on said propaganda – in this case independent news that might call into question the authority of China's communist government. Such information could lead to an uprising of the likes of Brexit, potentially leading to Jinping and his cabinet facing serious backlash.

Enterprise reporting not sanctioned by the state has been illegal in China for years, but only in recent weeks has aggressive enforcement action taken place. The new crackdown, says adjunct Chinese University of Hong Kong professor Willy Lam, suggests that the communist powers "really mean business" in protecting their power.

Their first course of action is to impose fines on companies that violate the censorship mandate, which includes internet providers that feed third-party news to subscribers. The Chinese government also plans to install its own people onto the boards of these companies, giving them further control over the information they disseminate.

What makes the latter effort especially egregious is the fact that online news services are technically outside the regulatory purview of China's existing censorship law, at least when it comes to the distribution of news that contradicts the government narrative – they're still prohibited from providing "original" content, and they're not allowed to hire their own reporters or editors.

As far as what constitutes "current-affairs news" reporting that's now off limits in China, the broad definition includes anything relating to politics, economics, foreign affairs, military and social issues – in other words, pretty much anything.

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Sources for this article include:

Bloomberg.com