Press Freedom in China: A Comparative Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of Labor Disputes

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Press Freedom in China A Comparative Analysis
of Newspaper Coverage of Labor Disputes

• Vi L. Nhan, International Studies, Political
  ScienceAdvisor Dr. Susan H. Whiting, Political
  ScienceUniversity of Washington

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Introduction

• Reporters Without Borders 2005 Worldwide Press
  Freedom Index places China at 159 out of 167
  countries
• 358 TV stations and 2,119 newspapers

http//www.cpj.org/Briefings/2006/imprisoned_06/im
prisoned_06.html
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Country Background China

• Population 1.3 billion people
• Economic reforms in the 70s
• 2006 GDP real growth rate 10.5 (official data)
• 2006 GDP - per capita 7,600
• 400 million Chinese lifted above the 1 a day
  poverty level in the last 20 years

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Media as the mouthpiece of the Party

1. News media must reflect the Partys guiding
   ideology
2. News media must disseminate the Partys programs,
   policies, and directives
3. News media must accept the Partys leadership and
   subscribe to the Partys organizational
   principles and press policies.

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Three Approaches to Censorship

• Legal
• Political
• Economic

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Legal Approach to Censorship

• Article 35 freedom of speech, of the press, of
  assembly, of association, of procession and of
  demonstration.
• 1989 Protection of National Secrets Law
• 1997 Criminal Law
• Central Propaganda Department
• The State Press and Publication Administration
• The State Administration of Radio, Film and
  Television
• The Ministry of Information Industry.
• Re-education as a requirement for media license
  renewal.

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Political Approach to Censorship

• Nomenklatura atmosphere of self-censorship
• Propaganda circulars (PCs), specific instructions
  on how to handle sensitive topics or specific
  news stories for the media.
• directly from national media organizations like
  Xinhua, Peoples Daily, or CCTV
• passive censorship or cold treatment
• Imprisonment of journalists

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Economic Approach to Censorship

• Commercialization
• Best means for improving the effectiveness of
  party propaganda and regime legitimacy
• Print media at the city, provincial, and central
  level reorganized into media conglomerates or
  media groups - financially strengthen the media
  industry and politically consolidate leadership.
• Monetary incentives
• performance bonuses
• out of pockets expenses from journalists
• Labor disputes, corruption, and health epidemics,
  etc. are somewhat open for critical coverage

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Research Question

• Given the conservative communist regime, why does
  the Chinese press seem to be more daring and
  critical in its reporting in the recent years?

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Hypothesis

• Due to commercialization, the Chinese press has
  been more daring and critical within certain
  boundaries.
• Semi-commercial papers are more commercial ? more
  critical
• Official papers are less commercial ? less
  critical

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Gap

• Debate Many scholars have argued that
  commercialization has allowed for the loosening
  of the CCP's control (Lynch 1999 Gilley 2004),
  while others on the opposite side argue that
  commercialization has only changed the forms of
  control utilized by the CCP (Zhao 1998 Esarey
  2005, 2006).
• A small degree of freedom does exist due to the
  turn toward marketization but within clear
  boundaries deemed appropriate by the government.

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Methodology

• Official
• Shandong Workers Daily
• Shandong Legal Daily
• Semi-commercial
• Qilu Evening Newspaper

• Media coverage of labor disputes as a window to
  test my censorship hypothesis
• Shandong Province in 2000

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Methodology II

• Content Analysis (quantitative)
• Portrayal of institutions
• Labor Bureau (???)
• Arbitration Committee (????? )
• Court (??)
• Discourse Analysis (Qualitative)
• 2 articles (one from semi-commercial with
  negative portrayal and one from official with
  positive portrayal of institutions) for close
  readings

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Preliminary Findings Labor Bureau (???)
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Preliminary Findings Arbitration Committee
(????? )
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Preliminary Findings Court (??)
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Discourse Analysis????
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Discourse Analysis?????
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Future Research

• Currently, this research is inconclusive at this
  preliminary state. The sample size is too small
  to decisively conclude on the state of media in
  China.
• This is an ongoing project that can incorporate
  many more variables with larger samples. The
  research will expand to include analysis of
  newspaper coverage of labor dispute in 1988,
  1994, and 2000 in the provinces of Shandong,
  Shaaxi, Sichuan, and Guangdong.
• However, the future path for this project is to
  incorporate more variables and codes along with
  more rigorous hypotheses testing.
• Another direction is to look at the change over
  time. Given the passage of labor laws within the
  past several decades, one would assume that
  papers became more daring over time. The same
  argument can be made with the onset of
  commercialization of the media since the 70s.

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Acknowledgement

• This work has been supported in part by the
  University of Washington Ronald E. McNair
  Program, Office of Minority Affairs, Prof. Susan
  Whiting, Chen Jie, Tam H. Tran, and Yicheng Wang.
• The stratified data set is part of a larger
  project of Prof. Susan H. Whiting, along with Lin
  Ying and Chen Jie, graduate students of the
  Political Science Department. Prof. Whiting spent
  several summers in China and Hong Kong to collect
  newspaper articles on labor disputes. Articles
  are collected for the months of January, April,
  July, and October depending on the availability
  of the sources, another month was used as a
  substitute.

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Reference

• Esarey, A. (2005). Cornering the market State
  strategies for controlling Chinas commercial
  media. Asian Perspective. 29(4), 37-83.
• Chen, J. (2007). When propaganda and profit meet
  Newspaper reporting of labor disputes in China.
  Masters Thesis Draft. University of Washington.
• Gallagher, M. (2006). Mobilizing the law in
  China Informed Disenchantment and the
  development of legal consciousness. Law
  Society Review 40(4).
• Gilley, Bruce. (2004). Chinas democratic future
  How it will happen and where it will lead. New
  York Columbia University Press.
• Lieberthal, K. (2004). Governing China From
  revolution through reform. New York W.W. Norton.
• Liebman, B. L. (January 2005). Watchdog or
  demagogue? The media in the Chinese legal
  system. Columbia Law Review. 105(1).
• Lynch, D. C. (1999). After the propaganda state
  Media, politics, and Thought Work in reformed
  China. Stanford Stanford University Press.
• Zhao, Y. (1998). Media, market, and democracy in
  China Between the party line and the bottom
  line. Urbana and Chicago University of Illinois
  Press.

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