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A Frame Analysis of Ngo Literature on Internet Censorship in China: the Case of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders

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A Frame Analysis of Ngo Literature on Internet Censorship in China: the Case of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders Western University Scholarship@Western Digitized Theses Digitized Special Collections 2011 A FRAME ANALYSIS OF NGO LITERATURE ON INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN CHINA: THE CASE OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, AND REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS Jessica Wai-Man Lai Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses Recommended Citation Lai, Jessica Wai-Man, "A FRAME ANALYSIS OF NGO LITERATURE ON INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN CHINA: THE CASE OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, AND REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS" (2011). Digitized Theses. 3236. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/3236 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Digitized Special Collections at Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digitized Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A FRAME ANALYSIS OF NGO LITERATURE ON INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN CHINA: THE CASE OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, AND REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS (Spine title: A Frame Analysis of NGO Literature) (Thesis format: Monograph) by Jessica Wai-Man Lai ) s ' Graduate Program in Media Studies A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Jessica Wai-Man Lai 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO SCHOOL OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION Supervisor Examiners Dr. Sandra Smeltzer Dr. Ajit Pyati Supervisory Committee Dr. Carole Färber Dr. Ajit Pyati Dr. Alfred Chan The thesis by Jessica Wai-Man Lai entitled: A Frame Analysis of NGO Literature on Internet Censorship in China: The Case of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Date___________________________ _______________________________ Chair of the Thesis Examination Board u Abstract This thesis critically examines the way in which Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) frame the issue of internet censorship in China. As three of the world’s leading non-governmental human rights organizations, how these NGOs frame this issue—i.e. what aspects they emphasize or neglect, whose actions they highlight or obscure, and what kinds of solutions they propose—can influence which institutions or actors might take up the issue, who will pay attention to it, and what kind of action is taken to address it. In order to investigate the respective framing strategies employed by these NGOs in their discussions about internet censorship in China, a content analysis involving both quantitative and qualitative research methods was conducted on relevant literature published by all three organizations between the years 2005 - 2010.1 found that all three NGOs tended to emphasize certain issues, including internet blocking and filtering, cyber dissidents, and foreign corporate complicity, while ignoring other issues, including Chinese internet laws and regulations, government surveillance and propaganda, and the complicity of hardware and domestic internet companies. The collective lack of attention to these items is problematic insofar as it may influence how target audiences interpret and respond to the issue of internet censorship in China. Largely ignored by these organizations, the items listed above are therefore likely to remain ignored by other political actors, including governments and policymakers with the capacity to take action on this issue. Keywords: internet, censorship, China, framing, non-governmental organization, content analysis, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders Acknowledgments My deepest and sincerest gratitude is reserved for my supervisor, Dr. Sandra Smeltzer. Her support, guidance, and mentorship throughout this process and over the last five years have been invaluable to my academic growth and to my success in completing this thesis. I would also like to extend my appreciation to Dr. Ajit Pyati for reading earlier drafts of my work and providing his insight and feedback. I am tremendously grateful for the encouragement and support of my family, friends, and colleagues throughout the past two years. Finally, I owe a special thank you to Jackie Cowan, who helped get me here in the first place. IV Table of Contents List of Tables VI List of Appendices vii List of Abbreviations viii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 : Internet Censorship in China 8 Chapter 2: The Political Impact of the Internet in China 37 Chapter 3: NGOs, Framing, and Case Studies 62 Chapter 4: Research Methods, Findings, and Analysis 80 Conclusion 127 Works Cited 132 Appendix I: Coding Sheet 151 Appendix II: Coding Manual 152 Vita 156 v List of Tables Table 1: A summary of Amnesty International publications by type and by year 87 Table 2: A summary of Human Rights Watch publications by type and by year 87 Table 3: A summary of Reporters Without Borders publications by type and by year 88 Table 4: Comparisons of Chinese internet censorship-related issues reported by AI, HRW, and RSF 90 Table 5: Actors framed by AI, HRW, and RSF as being problematic in contributing to internet censorship in China 92 Table 6: Actors framed by AI, HRW, and RSF as having the capacity to help address or mitigate the issue of internet censorship in China 94 Table 7: Actions and solutions proposed by AI, HRW, and RSF towards addressing the issue of internet censorship in China 96 vi List of Appendices Appendix I: Coding Sheet 151 Appendix II: Coding Manual 152 Vll List of Abbreviations AI Amnesty International BBS Bulletin board system CCP Chinese Communist Party CNNIC China Internet Network Information Center C&R Custody and repatriation DNS Domain name system DOP Department of Propaganda GNI Global Network Initiative GOFA Global Online Freedom Act HRW Human Rights Watch ICP Internet content provider ICT Information and communication technology IOC International Olympic Committee IP Internet protocol ISP Internet service provider Mbps Megabytes per second Mil Ministry of Information Industry MIIT Ministry of Industry and Information Technology MPS Ministry of Public Security MPT Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications NGO Non-governmental organization NIISC National Information Infrastructure Steering Committee viii ONI OpenNet Initiative P2P Peer-to-peer RSF Reporters Without Borders SARFT State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television TAN Transnational advocacy network TCP Transmission control protocol UN United Nations IX 1 INTRODUCTION Since the arrival of the internet in the mid-1990s, the Chinese government has embraced this technology as a new frontier for economic growth and modernization. Indeed, over the past two decades, the promotion and diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) including the internet have been a key focus of China’s economic development plans (Dai; Hachigian; Tai; Zhou). The result has been an explosive growth in the country’s internet connectivity. Today, China boasts the largest internet population in the world with 485 million internet users, a number that continues to grow every year (CNNIC). The rise of the internet is, however, a double-edged sword for China’s leadership. While the internet provides new economic opportunities, an unregulated network can also threaten the power of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by opening the door to politically sensitive material and enabling net users to engage in politically subversive activities. The challenge, then, for the Chinese government, has been to foster the growth of the internet for its economic benefits while at the same time maintaining political control over the flow of information online. In order to regulate net users’ activities and suppress dissent in cyberspace, the Chinese government uses various mechanisms of control that together create one of the most expansive, multifaceted, and sophisticated internet censorship regimes in the world. Routers in China’s national firewall block and filter content considered harmful by the authorities, including material related to democracy, human rights, and political reform; over sixty sets of laws and regulations exist to control and restrict internet content and usage; government-employed web commentators are trained to infiltrate online 2 discussions and spread Party propaganda; tens of thousands of internet police across the country monitor the web for illegal activity; and countless of peaceful cyber dissidents— including 2010 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Liu Xiaobo—are imprisoned for simply expressing their political views on the internet. The result of China’s extensive regime of internet censorship is an online environment in which citizens’ communicative rights and freedoms to both produce and consume information are severely undermined. Specifically, the Chinese government’s repressive censorship practices are a clear violation of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees all citizens the “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” (United Nations). Given the significant human rights concerns with regards to Chinese internet censorship, it is not surprising that this issue has received considerable attention from three of the world’s leading international non-governmental
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