New China Ruling Threatens Closure Of News Agencies 01/19/96

[nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)]

In effect, the edict puts Xinhua, the world's unnewsiest news agency, in 
charge of agencies normally beyond the grasp of cadre communists -- even in 
Hong Kong, Macau and, Taiwan. On this basis, the next time Hong Kong 
billionaire Li Ka-shing did a deal with state authorities that relieved 
McDonald's Corp. or any other legal entity of its contractual 
rights (as happened last year), the story would have to be vetted by 
Xinhua.  

Xinhua already made information-control history when it established a 
service that both disseminates outgoing commercial data on the Internet and 
filters any incoming information.  

Although the State Council's directive gives Xinhua control over strictly 
"economic" news, the government body has licensed Xinhua to control 
everything, effectively ruling out reliable news. Stock markets and business 
plans are driven by market forces -- even in highly manipulated China. Even 
when one is tempted to think business is market driven, the whims of China's 
central controllers can skew everything -- as merchandisers in the casual 
wear clothing market found when that suddenly dried up because the bosses on 
top didn't like then Giordano clothing store chairman Jimmy Lai.  

The State Council's directive will in all likelihood force the New York 
Times, Reuters and other news organizations to reassess their operations in 
territories Xinhua is authorized to control.  

Controls go beyond editorial conventions. According to Xinhua, foreign wire 
services will not be allowed to increase subscribers in China "directly nor 
by ways of establishing joint ventures, solely funded companies or agents."  

The Xinhua report said that foreign news providers "will be punished in 
accordance with the law if their released information to Chinese users 
contains anything forbidden by Chinese laws and regulations, or slanders or 
jeopardizes the national interests of China."  

Jeopardizing the national interest of China is now taken to mean 
jeopardizing the interests of the communist party, or the roughly 5% of the 
population controlling the country from "the barrel of a gun," to borrow 
from Mao Zedong.  

Agencies only learned of the new rules Tuesday night when Xinhua, skirting 
the usual practice of circulating advisories on operational changes 
internally, simply put the story on the wire. One Hong Kong agency man told 
Newsbytes: "We always knew writing stories from China was a problem. Now you 
have to wonder if we'll be able to send stories from Hong Kong, without 
having to pass them by Xinhua for approval.  

The directive indicates stories will have to pass through Xinhua first -- 
pointing to a major evacuation of news services, and technology vendors who 
handle them.  


(Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19960117)