South Korea's View on China's Media Control and Censorship

Got bored of China's Internet censorship efforts, and its interest to control mobile communications as well? I haven't, and I doubt I ever will given China is among the many other countries on the world's map actively restricting access to information, and, of course, controlling the way it reaches the final audience -- if it does.

A recent article at The Korean Times, makes some very good points on the cons of censoring the reporting of "sudden events", and the typical for a (modern) communist type of government, total centralization. It emphasises on how :

"Beijing's approach is fundamentally flawed. The news media is a positive force in society. A free press is necessary to keep the government on its toes, especially when the government itself is not accountable to the public. Restricting the press will result in a public that is kept in the dark and in local governments whose excesses will no longer be subject to scrutiny.

Beijing should understand that many of today's problems today stem from abusive local officials. Premier Wen Jiabao acknowledged at a press conference in March that some local governments have infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of the people, and social conflicts have subsequently occurred.

In this struggle between victimized farmers and avaricious officials, the press—and the central government—are on the same side. Muzzling the press will only deprive the victims of a powerful champion while enabling grasping officials to line their pockets without fear of being exposed. Surely, this cannot be what the Chinese government wants."

In case of a "sudden event" I feel they'd rather be winning time compared to keeping it quiet, then again I guess ruling one of the largest nation in the world while trying to maintain stability -- FDI matters folks -- is a dauting task, but one not necessarily having to do with ignoring the situation. Government accountability and possible changes in voting attitudes in China don't exist, mainly because there isn't any other party, but THE party, therefore historical (under)performance doesn't count at all.

In comparison, whereas Chinese citizens suffer from the lack of information or the blocked access to it, in the U.S there's a controversial debate going on regarding over-performing investigative journalists revealing details thought to be sensitive to national security, and the overall availability of potentially sensitive information to the general public. The problem isn't the "leak" as it's a common sense practice, but the publicity it got in the post 9/11, privacy-preserving society -- or at least one trying to. Doesn't really matter if the FOIA turned forty, "redacting" is often misspelled for censorship, in between the lines of personal and sensitive information.

At the bottom line, government practices' transparency with the help of the media watchdogs, a government incapable of knowing the exact state of a situation by itself, or the notion of too much publicly available information in today's OSINT world, up to you to decide, just don't rule, run business, or blog, by excluding the middle, or you'll sooner or later face with it in one way or another.