(LibertySociety.com) – Before China’s President Xi Jinping rose to power in 2013, there were strides in press freedom. Since then, the leader tightened his control over information coming out of the communist country. Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which advocates for freedom of the press, described the growing media oppression as a “nightmare” reminiscent of the Maoist era. The President made it a crime to freely access information and a worse crime to provide it.
If journalists don’t change their stories to fit the official narrative, they face punishment for “harming national unity.”
Guardian reports: "Journalists in China face ‘nightmare’ worthy of Mao era, press freedom group says. Reporters Without Borders calls increasing media oppression in China a ‘great leap backwards’ and says Hong Kong journalism is ‘in freefall.’" See: https://t.co/Qbszwo1FrX
— CIoJ (@CIoJournalist) December 8, 2021
Online censorship, an overseeing watchful eye, and paid propagandists are examples of obstacles those who report the news face in Hong Kong. RSF noted the harassment and intimidation facing reporters who covered the Henan floods in July. Additionally, the country forced many foreign correspondents out of China for reporting on an Australian anchor’s arrest. Plus, the communist regime arrested many local journalists for covering the Wuhan lockdown.
RSF’s Secretary-General, Christophe Deloire, called for global democracies to “dissuade the Beijing regime” from continuing its crackdown and heavy information censorship. Without freedom of the press, China’s citizens and the rest of the world could descend into information darkness, where the public only sees stories devoid of any details that don’t fit the regime’s agenda.
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