Organizational Culture

CHINA'S FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Publicado por Diego Silva , lunes, 22 de marzo de 2010 15:24

One of the most worldwide issues about China is its constraints about freedom of speech, specially seen right now thanks to the spread of the internet as a tool for communicating around the world.

Even thought in the national Constitution it states that: “Chinese citizens enjoy freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Other legislation, such as China's Publishing Regulations, stipulates that groups and individuals may not interfere in the lawful exercise of these rights.” (Taken from: http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/exp/)
It is the government itself who doesn’t want to know the world some of the things that happen there, they are aware of the interest that people have in China right now and how they are handling some topics as human rights, work conditions and environmental issues, that’s why they need to control the information flow about those critical topics internationally in order to maintain a “good image” of the progress in China.

Censorship is heavily imposed but is not total some areas such as Hong Kong and Macau are not submitted to the government regulations, that includes controlling over the news information, restrictions on the media, controlled Internet Services Provider that verifies the information and control internet user’s content availability and banned publications, etc. are some of the ways, they use to control the information exchange, many international NGOs have presented their concerns and exposed how China doesn’t meet the international human rights standards for freedom of expression.

But thanks to the expansion of the internet, people from China are having more opportunities to share their living experience and show the world what is going on there in spite of the strict government regulations, and also to know about the world ‘s different points of view, and what freedom of speech stands for.