New York, June 26, 2006The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by a proposed law that would subject news outlets to fines for reporting on natural disasters, riots, and other emergencies without official approval. The draft law is under review by the country’s legislature, according to state media.
"The media have an important and potentially life-saving role in reporting health crises, natural disasters and other incidents of public concern that officials often have an interest in concealing," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. “We stand by our colleagues in China who have urged authorities to scrap this proposal and allow journalists to do their job.”
Under the draft law, news outlets face fines up to 100,000 yuan (US$12,500) for the unauthorized reporting of public emergencies. They would also be fined for falsely reporting news of disasters.
The proposal stipulates that officials would be fined if they failed to report emergencies to their superiors. It goes on to say that the news should not be released to the public if the information could “jeopardize the handling of emergencies,” Xinhua News Agency reported. These events could include news of health and environmental crises, mining disasters, riots and demonstrations, and natural disasters, according to international news reports.
Several bloggers and media critics in mainland China blasted the proposal. The Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis News published an editorial calling the draft law “a step backward” and citing the media’s role in exposing government cover-ups of recent mining disasters.
“Using the law to affirm government control over the administration of news outlets is an utterly dangerous endeavor,” said the editorial, attributed to writer Chang Ping, possibly a pseudonym.
Two former staff members of Southern Metropolis News, Yu Huafeng and Li Minying, are currently serving prison terms of eight and six years, respectively, after the newspaper’s aggressive reporting on public issues, including SARS, sparked the ire of authorities.
The proposal furthers attempts by the administration of Chinese President Hu Jintao to restrict reporting by China’s increasingly market-driven press. In May, CPJ reported that the government has undertaken a massive campaign to conceal news of increasingly common “mass incidents”riots, demonstrations, and unrest that have marked China’s booming development. Read the story.
The  Chinese Government has announced plans to impose fines of over US$12,000 on media outlets if they report domestic disasters without permission. 

Two years in the planning, the law is expected to be in force by the end of the year and would affect reporting of natural and industrial disasters or anything that could “jeopardize the handling of emergencies,” or threaten social order. 

In a country which is infamous for its censorship there’s been outcry from press freedom campaign groups, but the Chinese government insist that the laws are primarily to give local governments more control in releasing information to the public. A government spokesperson said: "Journalists and media organisations have worked very hard to contribute to covering emergencies but I must say that some individual journalists have filed wrong reports or even fabricated facts."

Chinese journalists on the mainland  Hong Kong have criticised the law, calling it a “step backward.” The Xin Kuaibao (New Express) said it was concerned that local government would control information saying “there is no way of verifying that the information in the hands of the government is the truest and most accurate.”   

The  Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) meanwhile has expressed its concern. "The media have an important and potentially life-saving role in reporting health crises, natural disasters and other incidents of public concern that officials often have an interest in concealing," CPJ director Ann Cooper said last week. 

The proposed law is a worry for some in light of the Chinese government’s handling of previous disasters that were widely criticised. In 2004 several officials resigned for their handling of the  SARS outbreak, after public pressure sparked by domestic media. 

According to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists,  China imprisons more journalists than any other country, including two from the Southern Metropolis News for their reportage of the SARS crisis.