CNN: China cracks down on Internet news, chat

November 7, 2000

BEIJING, China (AP) -- China strengthened its censorship over the Internet on Tuesday, clamping restrictions on Web sites offering news reports and requiring chat rooms to use only officially approved topics.

The new regulations, published in state-run newspapers, would likely create more headaches for Chinese Web sites, already reeling from tough competition and a shortage of investment funds. But it could boost government-controlled media struggling to enter the Internet age.

The rules require general portal sites to use news from state-controlled media, seek special permission to offer news from foreign media and meet strict editorial conditions to generate their own news. Failure to do so could result in warnings, temporary suspension or permanent shutdown, the rules said.

Only state media would be allowed to set up news sites and even then only with government approval, the rules said.

The power to grant permission was given to the State Council Information Office, the Cabinet-level agency with ties to the ruling Communist Party's Propaganda Ministry. The Information Office now joins the Ministry of Information Industry as a primary regulator of the Internet, with the former apparently now supervising content and the latter service.

Although the restrictions have been rumored for nearly a year, their publication marks the first formal prohibition against Web sites offering news from any but state-owned media.

"These were already the unwritten rules," said an executive of portal Sohu.com Inc., who asked not to be identified by name. "In fact, this is better because we now know what the limits are."

The executive and others in the industry predicted that rules would further trends already apparent in the sensitive world of China's Internet: more self-censorship by companies and more offerings of neutral fare like sports and entertainment.

Separate rules on bulletin board services and chat rooms, also released Tuesday, ordered operators to use only approved topics and monitor what users post.

Both sets of rules built on industry regulations issued last month and included a laundry list of previously announced prohibitions against content that reveal state secrets or propagate the overthrow of the communist government, ethnic or regional separatism or "evil cults."

The last category covers the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which has defied a 16-month-old government crackdown and frequently resorts to the Internet to spread its message.

Chinese leaders have been ambivalent about the Internet since its first explosive growth in China in the mid-1990s. They want to harness it for business and education while preventing it from becoming a tool of political discontent.

Chat rooms, even those run by staid symbols of state media like People's Daily, are often lively sites of political discourse. When Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was forced from power last month, Chinese turned to the Internet to debate democracy even while state media was silent.

"The government makes various efforts to get a grip on the Internet," said Ted Dean with BDA China Ltd., a media and Internet consulting firm in Beijing. "But that just hasn't come to pass."

http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/11/07/china.internet.ap/index.html