Freedom House’s biweekly update of press freedom and censorship news related to the People’s Republic of China



SPECIAL SECTION: SOCIAL MEDIA CRACKDOWN

* New judicial guidelines expand criminalization of online speech

* Online activists big and small detained

* State media air contrite statements by leading bloggers

* Campaign sends chill through microblog community, investors undeterred

* Observers speculate on leadership’s motives

 

Freedom House’s biweekly update of press freedom and censorship news related to the People’s Republic of China 



HIGHLIGHTS

* Despite Bo Xilai defiance, media coverage of trial is closely controlled

* Journalist arrested amid national crackdown on antigraft and reform activism

* Government introduces mandatory Marxism classes for journalists

* Online antirumor principles listed, microblogger arrests widen

* Despite censorship, China’s WeChat app reaches 100 million users abroad

Freedom House's biweekly update of press freedom and censorship news related to the People's Republic of China 



HIGHLIGHTS

* State media spin Bo Xilai indictment as part of anticorruption campaign

* Journalist, activists detained as crackdown on antigraft movement widens 

* Peking University professor faces dismissal over online political comments

* Party officials mine online chatter as WeChat challenges Weibo dominance 

* China withholds payments to Hollywood studios in tax row

Freedom House’s biweekly update of press freedom and censorship news related to the People’s Republic of China



HIGHLIGHTS

* Education campaigns stoke indoctrination fears in China, Hong Kong

* Online antigraft activists and muckrakers face violence, arrest, censorship

* Fruit vendor’s fatal beating spurs online outcry, censorship

* Chinese censors delete microblogs of Japanese newspaper

* Freedom House report finds internet controls advancing under new leadership

Freedom House’s biweekly update of press freedom and censorship news related to the People’s Republic of China



HIGHLIGHTS

* Official media trumpet Xi’s party discipline campaign

* State media make hay of Snowden revelations

* Investigative journalist found dead, two others held on bribe charges

* Online corruption scandals countered with punishments, propaganda

* Chinese censors mute news of Taiwanese bookstore launch in Shanghai

Freedom House’s biweekly update of press freedom and censorship news related to the People’s Republic of China



HIGHLIGHTS

* Party outlets reject constitutionalism amid ideological clampdown

* Online censors seen testing new tactics before Tiananmen anniversary

* Officials’ evolving responses to pollution protests play out online and off

* Little progress on cybersecurity, human rights at Obama-Xi summit

* Chinese diplomats harass French journalist, TV station after Tibet report

 

Freedom House’s biweekly update of press freedom and censorship news related to the People’s Republic of China



HIGHLIGHTS

* New party directives call for more rigid ideological controls

* Official investigated for misdeeds after reporter’s online exposé

* Magazine production halted after labor camp revelations

* Protest over migrant worker’s death spurs online censorship

* Chinese netizens flood White House petition site

Freedom House’s biweekly update of press freedom and censorship news related to the People’s Republic of China



HIGHLIGHTS

* State media tripped up by tale of Xi Jinping cab ride

* Netizens, internet firms respond to Sichuan earthquake

* State seeks netizen tips on corruption, arrests anticorruption activists

* Apple removes app with banned books on Tibet and Xinjiang

* China-based hacking continues as U.S. weighs stronger response

Freedom House’s biweekly update of press freedom and censorship news related to the People’s Republic of China



HIGHLIGHTS

* New rules restrict journalists’ use of microblogs, foreign sources

* Daring exposé on labor camp spurs outcry before censors descend

* Netizens and censors grapple with bird flu outbreak

* Netizen anger staves off fees for free service WeChat

* China release of ‘Django Unchained’ quashed without explanation

Freedom House’s biweekly update of press freedom and censorship news related to the People’s Republic of China



HIGHLIGHTS

* Editors sacked over North Korea, Taiwan articles

* Apple apologizes to blunt a coordinated attack in state media

* New surveillance ‘grid’ imposed on Tibet, activist released from prison

* Hollywood alters zombie, superhero films for China release

* Sale of Next Media’s Taiwan outlets falls through