FEER(6/12) China Media Ban Lists Student Crime, Disasters

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

(From The Far Eastern Economic Review)

After allowing China's state-controlled media to test new limits in the wake of a botched cover-up of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak, the Communist Party's propaganda department is reining news organizations in again. Chinese journalists say that on June 2 editors relayed to them the first extensive list of banned topics issued since March's National People's Congress, when a new president and premier took office. Among the taboo subjects: military doctor Jiang Yanyong, who blew the whistle on SARS; negative comparisons of China's medical system with those overseas; a revisionist historical television drama; prostitution among female university students in the city of Wuhan; the bribery case of a municipal party secretary in Heilongjiang province; and details of a submarine accident first reported by the Xinhua news agency on May 2. In addition, the new instructions decree that natural disasters and accidents should be reported only by local media, not by the national media. One journalist suggests the propaganda department may see the limitations on coverage as a way to remove distractions as the nation focuses on developing the economy and stopping the spread of SARS.

Thailand's decision to detain a Swedish Falun Gong follower has triggered accusations that the government has again bowed to pressure from China. Pirjo Svensson, a 44-year-old nurse, originally received a deportation order from the Thai Foreign Ministry on April 29, when she was arrested and detained in an immigration jail. She appealed against the order, and a decision had been expected on June 3. But though the authorities said a deportation decision could not be made because of technical reasons, she remains in jail with her visa revoked. "Rather than let her continue to languish in jail, we will advise her to leave Thailand," says Swedish Ambassador Jan Nordlander. The government had claimed Svensson was a national security threat because she planned to distribute Falun Gong literature. Falun Gong is not banned in Thailand but in China the spiritual movement is outlawed [...]. Swedish officials claim Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ordered Svensson's deportation after a complaint about her by the Chinese embassy in Bangkok. [...] Chinese pressure also saw the cancellation of an international Falun Gong conference in Bangkok in 2001, according to diplomats.

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