China to create blacklist of local journalists

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — China plans to create a blacklist of journalists who break its reporting rules, state media reported Friday, adding to an array of controls used to restrict its domestic media.

According to a report in the China Press and Publishing Journal, the agency that exercises control over the state-owned Chinese media plans to "establish a database of media professionals with a bad record."

It said reporters who violate the rules or laws will have their press cards taken away. "Their names will be entered into the list and they will be restricted from news reporting or editing work," Li Dongdong, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, was quoted as saying.

China's state-run media are tightly controlled and regularly censored in reporting the news. China relaxed some restrictions on foreign media during the Olympic Games last summer, but has since backtracked. Sensitive or negative issues are often ignored while Chinese journalists have been imprisoned for aggressive reporting on corruption in the private sector or the government.



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