Title: Media Censorship in China | Council on Foreign Relations
Headings: Media Censorship in China
Media Censorship in China
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Summary
Introduction
Official Media Policy
How Free Is Chinese Media?
The Censorship Groups
Daily News Brief
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Exerting Control
“To the degree that China’s connection to the outside world matters, the digital links are deteriorating.”
Foreign Media
“Some people in China don’t look at freedom of speech as an abstract ideal, but more as a means to an end.”
U.S. Technology in China
U.S. Relations With China
Circumventing the Censors
Top Stories on CFR

Content: Ng says that the various ministries once functioned as smaller fiefdoms of control, but have recently been more consolidated under the State Council Information Office, which has taken the lead on internet monitoring. Daily News Brief
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The Chinese government employs large numbers of people to monitor and censor China’s media. Experts refer to an October 2013 report in a state-run paper, the Beijing News, which said more than two million workers are responsible for reviewing internet posts using keyword searches and compiling reports for “decision makers.” These so-called “public opinion analysts” are hired both by the state and private companies to constantly monitor China’s internet. Additionally, the CPD gives media outlets editorial guidelines as well as directives restricting coverage of politically sensitive topics. In one high-profile incident involving the liberal Guangdong magazine Southern Weekly, government censors rewrote the paper’s New Year’s message from a call for reform to a tribute to the Communist Party. The move triggered mass demonstrations by the staff and general public, who demanded the resignation of the local propaganda bureau chief. While staff and censors reached a compromise that theoretically intended to relax some controls, much of the censorship remained in place.