.Jittery China government tightens media controls
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BEIJING — China’s propaganda authorities are trying to tighten controls over the Internet as they fear social unrest in the face of a cooling economy and mounting public anger at official corruption, analysts say.
With more than half a billion Chinese now online, authorities in Beijing are concerned about the power of the Internet to influence public opinion in a country that maintains tight controls on its traditional media outlets.
“The reform of the cultural system” is on the agenda for a four-day annual meeting of top Communist Party officials that begins on Saturday — a term widely seen as including measures to ensure media and Internet firms serve the authorities’ aims.
Already leading Internet firms have been pressured to tighten their grip on the web, with propaganda chief Li Changchun, fifth in the Communist Party hierarchy, recently meeting the heads of China’s main search engine Baidu.... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111016com3.html
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