China Increasingly Repressive, Report Finds
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/repressive-06282012120454.html

China is becoming increasingly repressive in civil and political life amidst aggressive crackdowns and disappearances, a democracy and human rights advocacy group said Thursday. In an annual report entitled “The Worst of the Worst: The World’s Most Repressive Societies,” Washington-based Freedom House listed China, Burma, Laos, and North Korea among the world's worst-rated countries for political rights and civil liberties. In Asia, North Korea and the disputed territory of Tibet were placed at the very bottom of the list.

The report was released to coincide with the June session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in an effort to focus on the world’s most dire nations. Several council members, including Saudi Arabia and China, are listed near the bottom. North Korea, like the other countries on the list, was held at "Not Free" status in 2011, with the report citing "nonexistent" rights to freedom of speech and the press, persecution of religious activities, and "severe" human rights violations, including the use of torture, public executions, arbitrary detention, and forced labor.

Freedom House also noted North Korea's absence of rule of law, the use the death sentence for political offenses, and an extensive network of camps for political prisoners, who face brutal conditions while incarcerated, as factors it used to determine the country's standing on this year's blacklist. Although China was not ranked at the bottom of the list, the nation was also designated as “Not Free” and Freedom House noted that it is trending downward. “China received a downward trend arrow due to increased Communist Party efforts to restrict public discussion of political, legal, and human rights issues,” the report said.

Beijing is accused of being behind the disappearance of dozens of human rights advocates, and of using online censorship to regulate social media and restrict access to information on the Arab Spring protests in the Middle East. “Looking at the way Chinese internet users are disconnected from the world, it’s really pretty incredible,” senior research analyst for Freedom House Sarah Cook said. “Look at how the coverage, or lack of coverage, of what was happening in the Middle East played out in China.” “There’s an example of the whole world talking about something and people in China just being disconnected from it.”

These actions are part of Beijing’s wider clampdown in anticipation of the power transition this fall, when President Hu Jintao will step down after 10 years in office, the group said. These findings were consistent with a report Freedom House released in January, which said China “showed significant signs of deteriorating governance, with particularly notable declines in the areas of civil society, media freedom, and the rule of law.”

Worst of the worst

Within China, Tibet received even lower marks, including it on a sub-list of nine countries and two disputed territories with the very lowest scores. Over 60 Tibetan cultural leaders, including writers and artists, have been arrested since an episode of civil unrest in 2008 and an ongoing series of self-immolations by monks in that region has led to widespread international attention.

“In Tibet, there wasn’t really a reflection in the score because there isn’t much further to go down,” said Cook. “In the Tibetan regions and the autonomous prefectures, that’s where you saw a deterioration and harsher oppression beginning in March with the horrible incidents of self-immolation.” “The response to this was to send in hundreds of security forces to surround the monasteries and try to take monks away,” she said. “That sparked backlash from local residents and a cycle of repression and resistance.”

Tibetans face the same lack of political freedoms as China’s Han majority the report said, but it noted that they are subject to harsher punishment for calls for greater rights. Tibetans are also subject to unique persecution, harassment, and punishment for those found in possession of materials relating to the Dalai Lama, it said.

Regional differences

China’s downward trend stands in contrast to other states in the region, including Laos, which has remained stable on the list, and Burma, where Freedom House has observed improvements. The group urged regional intergovernmental organizations like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to play a role in the human rights agendas of their members. “The free countries should more vigorously press the Worst of the Worst and Threshold countries to live up to their commitments under these regional organizations to respect fundamental rights,” the report said.

Freedom House maintained Laos as "Not Free" in 2011, noting the country's lack of an electoral democracy, "severe" restrictions on the media, and prosecution of religious activities. The report also noted government abuse of land rights and ongoing discrimination against the Hmong ethnic minority. Burma is still classified by the group as “Not Free,” but did improve its score over last year’s due to progress made regarding civil liberties. “In Burma there was this initial opening we saw in 2011, and those of us watching in 2012 have been pleasantly surprised,” said Cook.

Reduced restrictions on education, more press freedom, better treatment of opposition leaders and reduced internet censorship helped raise the nation’s score, the group said. Cook warned that Burma still needs to make institutional changes to ensure broader freedoms, but said she remained cautiously optimistic. “After [Burmese opposition leader] Aung San Suu Kyi was released … she was allowed to travel about the country and do interviews with the media,” said Cook. “On the Internet side, there was the unblocking of exile news websites and the people involved in them were allowed to travel to the country. These are things that a few years ago would have been difficult to even imagine.”

NY Times Launches Chinese Web Sit
http://www.voanews.com/content/ny-times-launches-chinese-web-site/1263072.html

The New York Times has launched a Chinese-language news website aimed at China's massive online population. The paper said in a statement the site, http://cn.nytimes.com which went active Thursday, hopes to draw readers from China's "growing number of educated, affluent citizens."

China has an estimated 500 million Internet users, making it the world's largest online population. But Chinese net users experience the web much differently than the rest of the world, due to a massive government censorship system that blocks content deemed objectionable. The Times acknowledged Wednesday that government censors sometimes block material from its English website. But it said it was hopeful that government officials would be "receptive" to its Chinese-language project. The New York Times' foreign editor Joseph Kahn said the paper has no control over what is censored by Beijing. But he vowed the Chinese version would adhere to journalistic standards, saying it will "not become an official Chinese media company."

The Chinese government has had a rocky relationship recently with foreign reporters. In May, Al-Jazeera said it was forced to close its English-language Beijing bureau after reporter Melissa Chan was expelled from the country. Chan is believed to be the first foreign correspondent in 14 years to be kicked out of China. Other foreign new organizations have reported being harassed or interfered with by government authorities when their material is critical of Beijing.

China employs thousands of censors that continuously monitor online content and block material considered a threat to government authority. Popular foreign websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are among those blocked by the so-called "Great Firewall of China." The government says its online censorship is aimed at maintaining social stability, and that it helps stop the spread of false rumors and inappropriate material.


Hong Kong Media Freedom Deteriorates
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/media-06252012140146.html

Hong Kong saw its tradition of press freedom eroded during the tenure of outgoing chief executive Donald Tsang, according to a new survey by a journalists' association in the former British colony. More than 92 percent of journalists polled by the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) said they believed that press freedom was now being actively hindered by government officials, who exerted an ever-tightening grip on the flow of information.

Four out of five of the 663 respondents, who included reporters, photographers, editors, and management, said they believed that the degree of media freedom in the territory worsened during Tsang's tenure. That belief is now held by 86.9 percent, 28.5 percentage points more than in a similar survey five years ago.

For the first time, tighter official control of information was cited as the biggest threat to press freedom in Hong Kong, which has previously taken the form of self-censorship to avoid alienating powerful officials and corporations in China. "This is a shocking result," said HKJA chairwoman Mak Yin-ting in an interview on Monday. "It is a situation that is ... very worrying." Mak said the majority of respondents now see government control of information as the single biggest factor behind the decrease in media freedom. "This is a deadly blow, because the Hong Kong government is the biggest holder of information," she said.

The police and fire services were cited by 57 percent of respondents as having limited journalists' access to information during Tsang's tenure as head of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government. Self-censorship still exists as a concern, according to 71 percent of journalists surveyed, with around 40 percent reporting that negative news about major advertising clients was played down, and 37 percent saying their bosses de-emphasized news that portrayed Beijing in a poor light. "During the past 10 years, most journalists and intellectuals who care about current affairs have said they feel that self-censorship is getting worse and worse," Mak said.

Beijing's influence

But she said that more than 67 percent said they believed that Beijing's central liaison office in the territory was exerting political influence over press freedom. "Beijing has poured a huge amount of time and effort into maintaining a 'united front' [in Hong Kong]," Mak said, referring to the ruling Communist Party's term for the manufacture and encouragement of public opinion of which it approves. "The media has been the main target." She said Beijing had redoubled its 'united front' efforts following the mass demonstrations on July 1, 2003 against proposed anti-subversion legislation, which the government later abandoned. Under the terms of its 1997 handover to China, Hong Kong has been promised the continuation of existing freedoms of expression and association for 50 years. But journalists and commentators have pointed to a number of outspoken radio personalities who have departed from key political talk shows in the years since the handover of sovereignty to Beijing. The territory's immigration service has also denied entry to prominent democracy activists and other individuals not approved by Beijing.

Hong Kong's leader-elect Leung Chun-ying will take over from Tsang on July 1, when thousands of people are expected to take to the streets in mass demonstrations which have become an annual pressure valve for political and social discontents in a political system which is strongly weighted in Beijing's favor. Leung, a Beijing loyalist, won the vote by 689 votes out of a total of nearly 1,200 ballots cast by an election committee hand-picked by Beijing. His count exceeded the minimum number of votes by the smallest margin yet, compared with his two predecessors. Leung's victory came after vigorous behind-the-scenes canvassing by Chinese officials following a series of scandals linked to his chief rival and former civil service chief Henry Tang, according to sources close to the electoral committee. His victory was announced in late March, amid raucous shouts of "Shame! Shame! Shame!" from protesters.

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The International Tibet Network is a global coalition of Tibet-related non-governmental organisations. Its purpose is to maximise the effectiveness of the worldwide Tibet movement, which is dedicated to ending human rights violations in Tibet and to working actively to restore the Tibetan people's right under international law to determine their future political, economic, social, religious and Cultural status.
The Network pursues its goals by working to increase the capacity of individual Member Organisations, through the coordination of strategic campaigns and by increased cooperation among organizations, thereby strengthening the Tibet movement as a whole. See www.tibetnetwork.org for more information.
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