Media Ownership in China

I did an 'essay' for my comparative press systems course and I tot it's good to share it here. Cheggidout...

FACTS

Media in China is largely, if not almost completely, state-owned. Media organisations in China are made to comply with the Communist Party as the power to hire and fire managers and top officials in the media industry lies in their hands (Esarey 2006). In that sense, media in China is also party-owned.

However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has also indicated it’s intentions for the country’s media to become commercialised (Wang and Ang 2010). The first sign of change came in 1978, after the end of China’s Cultural Revolution, when operation of the media became commercialised and was no longer in the hands of governmental administration. Subsequently in 2001 (on the eve of China’s entry into WTO) and 2003, the film and publishing industry and branches of circulation and advertising came under private ownership. Content production, editing and news gathering still remain under state ownership.

Media in China is regulated by government bodies, namely the Central Propaganda Department, the General Adminstration of Press and Publication, and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT)

Major players in the Chinese media industry include Xinhua, China Central Television (CCTV), and People’s Daily. I shall give a few more examples of media outlets in China.

Broadcasting & Cable TV
CCTV and provincial television networks are government owned and are largely funded by tax revenue (Datamonitor 2010). Therefore, they do not compete for revenue from end users, in the form of subscriptions, but for viewing figures, which translates into advertising revenue.

1. CCTV
Owned by SARFT, has a network of 19 television channels.

2. China News Service
State owned, second largest news agency in China (Datamonitor 2010). Also does radio broadcasting and online publishing.

3. Xinhua
Official press agency of the country. Owned by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), and is the largest news agency in China. As government funding has been reduced over the years, Xinhua is becoming increasingly reliant on public relations, construction and information services for funding (Datamonitor 2010). It is also listed on the NASDAQ and Tokyo Stock Exchange. Xinhua also does radio broadcasting and online publishing

4. Phoenix Satellite Television
Phoenix is a public limited holding company based in Hong Kong. Its major shareholders include Murdoch’s News Corp and Today’s Asia Limited (Datamonitor 2010). Phoenix enjoys good relations with the SARFT, thus it is ‘one of the few privately owned broadcasting companies in mainland China able to broadcast information about events not covered by the government media’ (Wikipedia 2010).

Newspapers
Newspaper publishers generate revenue mainly from advertising sales and copy sales. Print newspapers also have content available online now (Datamonitor 2010).

1. Xinhua
Publishes more than 30 newspapers and magazines (Datamonitor 2010). Please see above for more information on Xinhua.

2. Shenzhen Press Group

3. Southern Media Group
Official paper of the Guangdong Communist Party

4. People’s Daily
Owned by the Central Committee of the CCP.

Observations

China’s press system and media ownership is in stark contrast to that of the Western society, and the key difference lies in censorship. To westerners and citizens of any country that proclaims democracy as their style of governance, the media plays the role of the social watchdog. Government policies, government officials, foreign relations and local happenings are all scrutinised by the media and placed under the eye of the public. In China however, the ruling Communist Party exercises strict control over public opinion and has the authority to label certain subjects as off-topic to its people (He 2004).

In 2010′s index of press freedom by Reporters without Borders, China is ranked a lowly 168 out of 175 nations. Within this year, one journalist was killed, 30 others and 76 netizens were imprisoned. (Reporters without Borders 2010)

As the CCP has monopolistic rule over China, it has committed itself to the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist emphasis on the hold of the press as an instrument for public education, propaganda and mass mobilization (PressReference.com 2010). Thus, the idea of having the media as an outlet for the people to influence policies has no place in the CCP.

How is this control on the media exercised? The fundamental mean for forcing media organizations to abide by CCP wishes is the ‘vertically organised nomenklatura’ system of appointments, which grants the party power to hire and fire managers, editors and various personnel in the media industry (Esarey 2006). Propaganda circulars are also distributed by the Central Propaganda Department to instruct journalists on what should or should not appear in news reports. Such circulars also shows the informal manner of media policy-making manner by the CCP (PressReference.com 2010).

Moreover, journalists are paid by the kind of content produced. If their reports are favourable to the CCP, they will receive higher bonuses. Basic wages for journalists in China are generally very low, and acquiring the bonuses are essential for their own survival (Esarey 2006). Thus for the sake of job security, editors and writers will often forgo objectivity in their reports to curry favour the party. In addition to that, membership into the party will also increase chances for promotions.

It is also set in stone that mainland China’s media cannot be privately funded, thus rendering all private investments as illegal (He 2004). Article 3 of Decree No. 343 in the media law of China states that ‘Publishing shall adhere to the principle of serving the people and socialism, and shall continue to be guided by Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, and Deng Xiaoping Theory’ (CPJ 2008). This makes it impossible for companies, both local and foreign to try to break the CCP’s grip on information flow and tear down the great wall of censorship in China.

With the current system of state-owned media in place, it is unlikely that the mainstream media will serve its role as a watchdog anytime in the near future.

Even with the emergence of Internet and blogging, the picture of the future may not be as rosy as what many may believe. In the hands of the CCP lies one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated Internet filtering systems. One must understand that physical access to the Internet is tightly controlled by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and is provided by eight state-owned Internet service providers (OpenNetInitiative 2009). Sensitive keywords like Tiananmen or Falungong are blocked out in search engines and even prevented from being used in public forums (He 2004).

So far, the authorities have done a relatively good job in doing their balancing act by preventing any political uprising stemming from the Internet and at the same time allowing the Internet to be used as a tool for business, entertainment, education and information exchange (MacKinnon 2008).

One media outlet that seems to be bucking the trend of strict censorship by the CCP is Phoenix Television. Phoenix is headed by CEO Liu Changle, a former colonel in the People’s Liberation Army. Liu is vastly experienced of what Beijing will allow in news coverage, and together with his guanxi with the CCP, made Phoenix into an innovative news channel that is similar in terms of style of reporting to Western media like CNN (Borton 2004). When SARS took place in 2003, CCTV avoided covering too much of it to save the CCP from embarrassment, but Phoenix took the chance, reported on it extensively, and showed the world and the people of China what it can offer.

What does the future of media ownership in China hold? One thing for sure is that Beijing is planning to pump in billions of dollars over the next few years to restructure its media industry, and commercialising sectors of it (Barboza 2009). But total privatisation of it may have to wait. In a speech by President Hu Jintao in June 2008, a month before the Beijing Olympics, he urged existing press agencies to increase transparency and raise timeliness on breaking public events (Garnaut 2008). That seemed to indicate a nudge for state-owned media outlets to get its act together to prove its competitiveness, and nothing of the sort that would hint at the introduction of private ownership in the future.

Those who take on an anti-communist stand need to understand that the CCP views a privatised media industry as threat to its power and authority in China as it could potential allow people from using it to organise political opposition. As China is playing an ever-increasing role in global economy and politics, and with ever-increasing pressure from the west, it has taken tiny steps towards opening up its media. Perhaps one day, China would be able to even show the world a new system of press ownership.

References

Barboza, D. (2009). China wants its media companies to compete on world stage. The International Herald Tribune: 19.

Borton, J. (2004). “Phoenix TV spreads its wings in China.” Retrieved September 11, 2010, from http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FL09Ad01.html.

Committee to Protect Journalists (2008). “Falling Short: Appendix II: Media Law in China.” Retrieved September 14, 2010, from http://www.cpj.org/reports/2008/06/12ii-2.php.

Datamonitor (2010). Broadcasting & Cable TV in China. Industry Profile. Datamonitor, Datamonitor.

Datamonitor (2010). Newspapers in China. Industry Profile. Datamonitor, Datamonitor.

Esarey, A. (2006). “Speak no evil: mass media control in contemporary China.” Freedom At Issue(February): 1-12.

Garnaut, J. (2008). China still in control of most media. Sydney Morning Herald (Australia). Sydney: 20.

He, Q. (2004). Media control in China. Walking The Tightrope. 1: 11-27.

MacKinnon, R. (2008). “Flatter world and thicker walls? Blogs, censorship and civic discourse in China.” Public Choice 134: 31-46.

OpenNetInitiative (2009). “Internet filtering in China.” Retrieved September 11, 2010, from http://opennet.net/research/profiles/china.

PressReference.com (2010). “China press, media, tv, radio, newspapers.” Retrieved September 11, 2010, from http://www.pressreference.com/Be-Co/China.html.

Reporters without Borders (2010). “China”. Retrieved September 14, 2010, from http://en.rsf.org/report-china,57.html.

Wang, G. and P. H. Ang (2010). “The principal-agent problem in Chinese state-owned media.” China Media Research 6(1): 108-117.

Wikipedia (2010). “Phoenix Television.” Retrieved September 12, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Television.