Press freedom in China keeps going backwards, while spy apps are used to collect information about religious practices of people in Xinjiang, where over 12 million Uyghurs live, according to a report released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in December.
Oğuz Solak reporting from Taipei.
The China report written by RSF East Asia Bureau is based on the current state of media and obstacles for journalists in China and Hong Kong.
The decline in press freedom in China, the world’s second biggest economy, continues as the government uses apps to spot religious activities in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, which has over 12 million Muslim Uyghur inhabitants, states RSF.
“The plan that Xi Jinping is developing in China brings it every day closer to North Korea, where information is strictly controlled by the state and journalists are nothing but a relay of the state propaganda,” says Cédric Alviani, RSF’s East Asia Bureau Head. “Now all media in China receive notices from the government of propaganda or the Communist Party, and these notices are very detailed. They say what they should cover, what is forbidden to cover and how they should cover certain topics.”
China was known to have a relative freedom in media while opening up to the world in the 90s and early 2000s, when investigative journalists could have more autonomy. However, under President Xi Jinping’s rule the country seems to be going backwards in terms of press freedom.
“In Xi Jinping’s term, restriction of media has shifted to a more formal phase. I have observed that investigative journalists first slowly became quieter, then started to quit their jobs, because media isn’t a meaningful line of work anymore,” says Ceren Ergenç, associate professor at the department of China Studies at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou.
A visit made by President Xi to state media in 2016 was an indicator of an even tighter grip on press, says Su Chiaoning, associate professor at the department of Communication, Journalism, and Public Relations in Oakland University. “Xi Jinping actually visited major state media, and during his tour he gave a speech, and made it very clear that the state media’s first loyalty is to the Communist Party,” says Su.
RSF’s China report mentions:
Journalists are required to take “Xi Jinping Thought” training and download a spy app to get their press cards renewed
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Journalists in China are now required to participate in minimum 90 hours of “Xi Jinping Thought” training, and their participation and social media use are taken into consideration in renewal of press cards. Reporters are also required to download a spy app, which can modify files, make phone calls, and even turn on the device’s microphone by itself.
Facial recognition technologies are tested in Xinjiang, while phones are scanned for “deviant” behaviors
Chinese government also tests new technologies such as facial recognition on a wider scale, and spy apps scan the user’s phones for “deviant” behaviors such as having digital copies of Muslim books, sharing Quran verses in chat logs, and donating to a mosque in Xinjiang Autonomous Region. The situation in Xinjiang is a “total blackout” and most information comes from outside of the country, says Alviani. “Those who are identified as journalists are either jailed or very closely being surveilled, but in no way able to investigate.”
The pressure on journalists intensified with the pandemic
The Chinese government first denied the existence of the virus in the first days of the pandemic, then used it as an excuse to increase the pressure on reporters by claiming they are contagious and quarantining them. “If there was not such a heavy censorship in China, if whistleblowers and journalists had been able to do their job, the state authorities would have reacted three weeks earlier. These three weeks might have made a difference between an epidemic in China and the current pandemic,” Alviani says.
More journalists are prosecuted with the National Security Law in Hong Kong
The situation in Hong Kong, where several news outlets recently closed, has been worsening for journalists especially after the imposition of the National Security Law in 2020. “While journalism was dying in Mainland China, it kept going in Hong Kong until recently. Reporters kept their role as opinion leaders. As they still have this role, they are amongst the groups that are first and most pressured,” says Ergenç.
“I think there is no turning back for Hong Kong. Reporters are changing their careers in Hong Kong. News institutions are leaving,” says Su. “I think it would be foolish to hope that Hong Kong will return to having the same level of freedom.” Hong Kong, which was ranked 18th in the World Press Freedom Index in 2002, declined to 80th place in 2021.
Unclear red lines are aiming for self-censorship
The Chinese government intentionally leaves boundaries blurry to increase self-censorship, says Alviani. Administrators of chat rooms and discussion forums are held responsible for all the content on those forums.
“This is a back-and-forth,” says Ergenç. “Censorship isn’t something that is predetermined with a law. Journalists publish something, in return the government reacts to that. They take it down, censor it. After that, they censor everything similar. Then, journalists try to find another way of publishing it.”
Chinese internet users find new solutions to access information
Despite all the censorship, the Chinese public isn’t fooled, and people are constantly looking for ways to inform and express themselves, says the report. In order to avoid using the keywords on a controversial topic and being blocked, the netizens find solutions such as using translations in English, Morse code, braille, emojis and even blockchain.
There is a misunderstanding in Western societies that Chinese people are obedient or don’t mind authoritarianism, according to Alviani. “This is just ridiculous,” he says. “They (Chinese people) are not naïve. They know perfectly well that the authorities are hiding something.”
China, the world’s second largest economy, was ranked 177th among 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index prepared by RSF.
