China’s Video Censorship Rules, Not as Tough as Advertised

It’s not as red and marked with the hammer and sickle as you might have thought, but it also wouldn’t win the "people living there’s award" when it comes to freedom of speech. It’s an ongoing cha-cha dance, with one making a move (the government) and if the reply is moderately strong, it will back up a little and let the other (the people) have their way to a certain extent.

The laws that were announced early January and that kicked in last week were extremely harsh and that’s why even state-controlled agencies protested against them. That caused an addendum to the papers, and instead of being state-only, now there’ll also be some private held firms that are in good standings with the authorities, as AFP reports. A statement posted today on the Ministry of Information Industry said that "(Companies) that were launched in accordance with law before the rules were announced and have committed no transgressions can register anew and continue to operate."

The statement in January said that "solely state-owned enterprises or enterprises whose shares are controlled by the state" would be allowed to operate, but it mellowed into the above statement.

The purpose of this move was to block out any violent, sexual or gambling content, in addition to the traditional fear of exposing state secrets and hone on that socialism moral code that people have been getting used to hearing. What was really surprising was the answer that the state-owned media companies gave in return, that they would stifle the development of the sector. The new set of laws also restricted access to even some of the biggest video sharing sites on the Internet, like Google’s YouTube and China’s very own Tudou.

An official stand on why the sudden change of heart occurred was not available, due to the Lunar New Year Holiday.

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