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Taiwan/China: Press Freedom of Expression Separates Two Countries - Editorial

Posted on: Monday, 20 February 2006, 09:00 CST

Text of report in English by Taiwanese newspaper The China Post website on 20 February

One of the many gaps separating Taiwan and mainland China is the freedom of expression. Without a free press on the mainland, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are unlikely to reunite peacefully.

Just three days ago, four leading American Internet firms were grilled on Capitol Hill by a congressional sub-committee about why these web giants are willing to collaborate with Beijing's censors to control Internet access and to track down dissidents.

Republicans and Democrats were united in their condemnation of the Internet companies - Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Cisco - for helping mainland China's bullies to suppress the spread of democratic ideas and persecute those who speak out against the regime.

But to blame those web providers is barking up the wrong tree, because they are obliged to comply with mainland China's law if they are to operate in the growing market of at least 100 million web users, arguably the world's largest. The culprit is the communist censors at the regime's propaganda department, which oversees and controls the mass media.

The long arm of Beijing's censors is everywhere in China, dangling like a sword of Damocles over the head of the press. The shutting down of Bing Dian, an outspoken supplement of the China Youth Daily, has caused an outcry at home and abroad. So outrageous was the suppression of press freedom that a group of the mainland's veteran journalists and retired officials signed a joint statement condemning Bing Dian's closure. The measure, they warned, "could sow the seeds of disaster for political and social transition."

The lack of press freedom in mainland China is one of the biggest obstacles blocking the road to China's eventual reunification. The glaring gap must be narrowed before Taiwan could consider embracing reunification. But is that possible? Will China have a free press in the future at all? Optimists would say yes, pointing to the fact that the mainland's press is much more free today than it was in Mao's days. The fact that Beijing allows the publication of the joint statement criticizing the regime is a sign of progress in itself, and bodes well for the advent of a free press.

Source: BBC Monitoring Media

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