BOOK REVIEWS

H.L. Fu and Richard Cullen: Media Law in the PRC

Published by a firm known for its legal guides to East Asia, and China in particular, this work is at first sight designed for businesses or people wishing to attempt to penetrate the powerful bastion of the Chinese media. In this pioneering work, however, H.L. Fu and Richard Cullen, both senior lecturers at the City University of Hong Kong, at once provide a wealth of information and a useful conceptual framework for all those seeking to understand how the means of mass communication function in the People’s Republic, and strive to lay out better markers for the possible areas in which civil liberties could be broadened in this country.

Divided into eleven chapters, Media Law in the PRC offers a very complete coverage of the rules and practices in China concerning the “established (or official) press”, publishing (the “non-established press”), the electronic media, as well as such things as the protection of State secrets and national security, the suppression of acts of insurrection and subversion or obscene and indecent documents, the fight against libel, advertising or copyright law. A final chapter refers to the specific problems encountered by the media in Hong Kong on the eve of the handover.

Evolving in a politically authoritarian environment, the Chinese media today remain constrained by an overwhelming system of control. This system is based on a vast and complex set of rules and restrictions: to the principle of the Communist Party leadership and State monopoly over the whole of the print media, radio and television, must be added the ill-define civil and criminal liability, as well, in particular, as the continuing self-censure of chief editors, journalists and publishers.

Yet, since 1979, the economic opening up of China and the mushrooming of the media have forced the authorities to relax their controls. It is true that the electronic media, which are especially influential, are closely watched. Generally speaking, censure occurs prior to the fact and live journalism is avoided as much as possible. However, the CP has trouble foreseeing everything. Accordingly, in a “live” television interview, in answer to the question “what is your favourite country”, a singer born in Formosa had the misfortune to give the spontaneous reply “Taiwan!”; the journalist was sanctioned for committing a “serious political mistake”, but the television channel was unable for all that to eliminate direct broadcasts entirely... (p. 81). In spite of the outlawing of the World Economics Herald (Shijie jingji daobao) in 1989, this kind of incident can also crop up in the written press; in this respect, the example of Peking’s Youth Daily highlights the shifting limits of authorised criticism of the corruption or dysfunctioning of the administration (p. 43). But, it is in publishing that the decline in the control of the CP-state bloc is the most apparent: as a general rule, an a posteriori control is now exerted over it. Hence, the regular harassment by the Propaganda Departments of small accommodating provincial publishers who let themselves be convinced to publish, often for purely commercial purposes, “superstitious”, “ribald” or politically incorrect works (p. 62). In this sense, the authors are right to point out that there exists in China today “a sort of bureaucratic pluralism” (p. 66).

Of course, such pluralism remains limited and above all uncertain. Nevertheless, the diversification of the media—especially the proliferation of satellite dishes and the introduction of the internet, which are difficult to control—, the greater openness of borders and the proximity of Hong Kong—where the print media in particular remain much freer, even since July 1997—have their impact on the systems of control. As shown by Fu and Cullen, such systems have become lighter and now also have the goal of better protecting rights that were largely trampled on hitherto. The appearance of a jurisprudence on libel or copyright law is in this respect revealing. Likewise, although average Chinese citizens still remain guardians of a certain number of State secrets—a particular feature of totalitarian countries—, the new regulation on the declassification of confidential documents constitutes a positive step forward (p. 122).

For all that, this work has a certain number of flaws both in content and form. It is clear that the authors cannot be blamed for getting down to an analysis of an exceptionally shifting reality and which has already changed in part since 1996. But the case law presented in numerous inserts, interesting as it might be, fails to display any significant evolution between the start of the post-Maoist period and the end of the Deng Xiaoping era. Some historical comparisons between similar cases would have been welcome. Then, changes to the Chinese media law are judged against the single yardstick of the UK and US systems, both common law countries, whereas in many areas China has legislation closer to Continental European law (copyright). Moreover, the work is on the whole more descriptive than analytical, giving too great a prominence to the paraphrasing of regulations which could have appeared as an annex, at the very least concerning the main texts: without reduplicating the book edited by Lee Chin Chuan (Media’s China, China’s Media, Westview Press, Boulder, 1994), more background information (particularly statistical) on the present situation of the Chinese media could have been provided. Furthermore, there is no reference to the English-language press (for example, the China Daily) which fulfills a particular mission showcasing a certain “pluralism” in today’s China, nor is reference made to the PC’s internal press—for example the Reference News (Cankao xiaoxi)—to which a growing number of readers today have access. Finally, though being written by lawyers, this work is lacking in detail and accuracy. Thus, the sources of the case studies given as examples are far from always being indicated. More generally, neither the texts of laws cited nor the footnotes conform to any uniform scientific criteria (incomplete references, dates missing, omitted or erroneous transcriptions in pinyin).

In spite of such reservations, this work provides a useful service and not only for the (future) practitioners of Chinese media law...