By Alex Wu
May 6, 2023Updated: May 6, 2023
China joined other communist states—Vietnam
and North Korea—at the very bottom of the latest Reporters Without
Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index released on May 3, which was World
Press Freedom Day.
China ranked in 179th place on this year’s
index of 180 countries and regions, one spot above North Korea and one place
lower than Vietnam. It fell four places from its ranking last year.
Communist China-controlled Hong Kong ranked
140th. The press freedom situation in the former British colony is classified
as “difficult,” while in mainland China, it is classified as “very serious.”
The annual World Press Freedom Index ranks
nations and regions in five categories: the political context, the
jurisdiction’s legal framework, the economic context, the sociocultural
context, and safety.
RSF selects journalists, scholars, and human
rights defenders to answer their press freedom questionnaire. It uses a
quantitative tally of abuses against the media and journalists, and a
qualitative analysis on the observations from press freedom specialists to
calculate a score of each country and region.
The report described People’s Republic of
China as “the world’s biggest jailer of journalists and press freedom
advocates, and one of the biggest exporters of propaganda content.”
The RSF report pointed out that “Asia’s
one-party regimes and dictatorships”—namely China and its regional neighbors
North Korea, Vietnam, and Burma, also known as Myanmar, which came in at 173rd
place—“are the ones that constrict journalism the most, with leaders tightening
their totalitarian stranglehold on the public discourse.”
In these countries, similar to the former
Soviet Union, “traditional media are closely controlled by the single party,”
the Paris-based group said.
“Independent journalists and bloggers who dare
to report ‘sensitive’ information are often placed under surveillance,
harassed, detained, and, in some cases, tortured.”
In early 2020, The Epoch Times reported that
Fang Bin, a citizen journalist in Wuhan, was jailed by the Chinese communist regime
for reporting the truth about the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan. Three years later
on April 30, he was released but has been sent back and forth between Beijing
and Wuhan by the police. His family didn’t dare to allow him to return home due
to threats they had received from the authorities. As a result, Fang has been
forced into homelessness, and continues to be followed and monitored by
plainclothes agents.
Another citizen journalist, Zhang Zhan, was
also sentenced for reporting on pandemic in Wuhan and is still behind bars.
U.S.-based current affairs commentator Tang
Jingyuan told NTD News’s Chinese-language Panorama program on May 5 of China’s
rock bottom ranking, “This once again shows that under the system of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), it is impossible to bring about the freedom of
speech and democratic thought by rapid economic development.
“This also illustrates that the red
centralized system of the CCP has never loosened its grip on the minds of the
people,” he said.
China’s ally, Russia, also dropped in the
press freedom ratings this year. It is now ranked 164th, nine places below
its position last year.
Taiwan (Republic of China), described by RSF
as one of the world’s “functional democracies,” was ranked 35.
No
Freedom of Speech Under CCP
Tang added: “The freedom of press in China
continues to decline to the bottom. It clearly shows that the CCP’s suppression
of speech in recent years has reached a new height.”
Even Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of
the regime’s mouthpiece media “Global Times” and the CCP’s top propagandist,
criticized the regime for its censorship and control over the news process in
response to the RSF ranking.
“The media’s own news attributes must be
protected and respected and cannot be made subordinate. [However], some regions
and departments are now adopting a strong interventionist approach to news
organizations, which is very debatable,” he posted on Chinese social media.
Tang pointed out, “It is impossible to expect
the CCP to change itself.”
Chen Weiyu said in her Chinese-language NTD
program “Wei Yu Sees the World,” “The CCP relies on guns and pens to steal
power. The so-called pen is to control news and propaganda. The reason why they
value news and propaganda so much, and must firmly control them in their hands,
is for disinformation.
“The CCP built the ‘Great Firewall’ for the
same purpose, which is to prevent Chinese people from accessing real news and
information.”
Tang said: “As long as the CCP system does not
disintegrate, with ordinary people or journalists will not have a day when they
can truly speak freely.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-ranks-2nd-worst-in-latest-world-press-freedom-index_5247535.html
Freedom to Write Index 2022
The Vietnamese government continues to quash dissent, with a particular focus on controlling the public’s access to social media and expanding the government’s ability to obtain access to personal data. Vietnam passed the Cyber Security Law in 2018, which required platforms to store data locally and gave the government control over online content and data. In 2022, the Vietnamese government passed Decree 53, which details the implementation of the Cyber Security Law, increasing government access to personal data and consequently their ability to crack down on dissidents. Additionally, free expression continues to be constrained by repressive laws and decrees as well as threats, intimidation, and physical assault. The Vietnamese government has effective control of all traditional media, including the press, television, radio, and other publications. The Vietnamese authorities monitor online spaces to censor and surveil online content.
As social media platforms emerged as a new venue for free expression, Vietnam built capacity to surveil and monitor expression. In 2015, Vietnam implemented a 10,000 unit cyber military force, known as Force 47, which allows Vietnamese authorities to closely scrutinize and limit digital free expression. Force 47 is tasked with countering government criticism on platforms, mainly Facebook and YouTube, and there is evidence that Force 47 has expanded dramatically over the years and has added a citizen-led affiliate known as E47. One tactic employed by the groups includes doxing Facebook users. Force 47 and E47 also employ a strategy of mass reporting “violations” of community standards on Facebook, which triggers the platform to take down pages or even ban them. The strategy takes advantage of the cumbersome appeals process and places the burden on targeted individuals since there is a lack of capacity of Vietnamese-language specialists working for Facebook to assist in the appeals process. Meanwhile the Vietnamese government is increasing demands on platforms, including requiring the removal of what it determines to be “fake news” within 24 hours.
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https://pen.org/report/freedom-to-write-index-2022/
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