China

A new report from Freedom House highlights the Beijing government’s global campaign to shape public opinion and secure both its hold on power in China and its policy priorities abroad.

The report by the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, contains victim accounts that substantiate mass arbitrary detention, torture, cultural persecution, forced labor, and other serious human rights violations, and recommends that states, businesses, and the international community take action with a view to ending the abuses, and advancing justice and accountability.

This 82-page report from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) details Beijing’s strategy to control access to information within and beyond its borders.

This report examines the ways in which Beijing’s censors have affected and influenced Hollywood and the global filmmaking industry.

Understanding how China tries to influence the media is a first step to preserve press freedom. Hong Kong and Taiwan are on the frontlines of this battle.

Key Finding: Governments harness big data for social media surveillance

The level of internet freedom declined due to the new cybersecurity law which strengthened repressive restrictions on online activities.

Based on extensive interviews with writers, poets, artists, activists, and others personally affected by the government’s grip on online expression, as well as interviews with anonymous employees at Chinese social media companies, the report lays bare the destructive impact of the Chinese government’s vision of “cyber sovereignty” on netizens who dare to dissent.

The general trend over the past 10 years has been bleak, with an overall negative trajectory for press freedom. The major turning point was the election of Xi Jinping as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in 2012 and President of China in 2013.

Activists received sentences of up to 11 years in prison for advocating democracy online

Authorities tightened control over news dissemination channels, including social media and mobile-phone applications, and suspended permission for websites to repost content from the prominent news site Caixin.

Combining both violent and nonviolent methods, the Communist Party’s policies are designed to curb the rapid growth of religious communities and eliminate certain beliefs and practices, while also harnessing aspects of religion that could serve the regime’s political and economic interests.

Chinese authorities’ enforced disappearance of critics from Hong Kong and other countries in 2016 garnered headlines globally. Beijing’s decision to interfere in a politically charged court case in Hong Kong in November undermined judicial independence and the territory’s autonomy. In the ethnic minority regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, Beijing continued its highly repressive rule, curtailing political activity and many peaceful expressions of ethnic and religious identity.

Dedicated internet users continued to employ circumvention technology and other creative tactics to defy and bypass restrictions on free expression. The government responded by increasing efforts to block circumvention tools, including through innovative cyberattacks and intimidation of software developers.

Draft counterterrorism law would require telecoms and ISPs to provide backdoor access and encryption keys to government

Ranked 186th in annual global media freedom report

Strike by journalists calling for end to censorship met with state-led ideological campaign

Ranked 183rd in annual global media freedom report

The 100-page report shows that Tibetan refugee communities in Nepal are now facing a de facto ban on political protests, sharp restrictions on public activities promoting Tibetan culture and religion, and routine abuses by Nepali security forces.

“Electronic Great Wall getting taller”

“Crackdown on bloggers and social media users follows presidential transition”

Ranked 175th in annual press freedom index

IFJ’s report documents the continued deterioration of press freedoms in Mainland China, as well as Hong Kong and Macau. It takes its title in direct response to Chinese authorities adopting more repressive measures in 2013 reminiscent of the Mao era four decades ago, including direct censorship, Internet surveillance, abuse of legal process, harassment and intimidation, and televised confessions of journalists and bloggers without trial.

Government attempts to rein in micro-blogging

Ranked 179th in annual global media freedom report

A growing number of Chinese assert basic rights, share uncensored information online, and challenge perceived injustice despite the regime’s hostility toward organised dissent

President Hu Jintao, the leading jailer of press freedom defenders in the world

Public WIFI providers required to install user tracking software

More than half of imprisoned journalists from minority regions, Tibet and Xinjiang

China “has more journalists, bloggers and cyber-dissidents in prison than any other country”

Authorities take “unprecedented step of rounding up over 30 of the most outspoken critics and ‘disappearing’ them for weeks”