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Chinese Internet regulation: an Historical overview of the most relevant Chinese Departments and Ministries

Gianluigi Negro (Ph.D. Candidate at Università della Svizzera Italiana)

Chinese Media Legilstation and Regulation: Trends, Issues and Questions

Comparative Media Law & Policy

15-16 June 2012, PCMLP, Oxford

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• Internet in China, some stats • Three phases• Present stage

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Source: CNNIC

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Source: Economist April 2012 , BCG

Prof. Qian Tianbai sending China’s first email

September 20, 1987

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Source: Beijing Association of online media (August 2010)

“Informatization is the foundation for China’s economic modernization; information resources is one of the most basic and important inputs for modern economic development; information industry should become the fundamental sector of China’s economy”.

Zheng Youjin, former director of the Center for Information Infrastructure (1997)

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Mass incidents phenomenon

From 8,709 (1993)

To 87.000 (2005)

1. It should involve a certain number of people according to our laws and regulations

2. their actions are not specifically allowed by law, and some are even prohibited

3. people who creates these incidents may not have the same purpose but behave in the same way

4. these incidents have some impact on civil order

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Before 1994

• Ministry of Post and Telecommunication (MPT)• Ministry of Eletronic Industry (MEI)

• Ministry of Broadcast, Film and TV (MBFT)

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Before 1994

Tan (1999)

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1994 - 1998

Tan (1999)

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Present stage

Tan (1999)

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«Coordinated competition»?

Chiao (2012)

•Internet mobile•VoIP

•Mobile TV

Convergence

•IPTV

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Not yet

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An unbalanced development

• In 1994 the Internet becomes commercially viable as China opens up to the global Internet

• 1994-1999: the state’s news and information monopoly and the Communist Party’s ideological agenda are threatened by online journalism – which is reined in – but expansion of media space continues apace

• 1999-2004 chat rooms, bulletin board systems (BBSs) and blogs shape alternative channels of communication – they are reined in – but the limits grow increasingly elastic

• 2004-2010: amidst a general media crackdown, blogs text messages and social media applications mobilize opinion and affect policy – attempts to rein them in have been ongoing particularly since 2006- with bloggers becoming more cautious as government plans for a real name registration system for bloggers.

Lagerkvist (2012)

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Rule by law Rule of law

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Thanks

Q&A

For contacts

gianluigi.negro@usi.ch

Twitter @giginegro