It's official, China is controling the media.

As if we didn't already know, a report from the IFJ (International Federation of Journalists) stating that "hundreds of regulations have been introduced since the Beijing Olympics in 2008 to restrict reporters writing on social unrest and scandal." Though it has been widely understood that China has been moderating what is shown on the news, this is the first official report which talks about the extent. This is unnerving not only to the international community, but for the Chinese people. Granted, this report will probably not be released in China, but the thought of all the scandals, controversy, and social uprisings which have gone under the radar because reporters were not allowed to write on them, and the social networking such as twitter and facebook, which would be alternate modes of information transfer are all banned is sickening. One has to wonder what the response would be by the Chinese people if they knew the extent of the intervention by the Government into the news there were being fed.

Megan Smith