Issue No. 119: May 2017 CHINA MEDIA BULLETIN Headlines FEATURE | Preparing for China’s next internet crackdown P1 BROADCAST / NEW MEDIA | In lawyers crackdown, authorities punish online speech, foreign media contacts P4 NEW MEDIA | New rules tighten control over online news P5 NEW MEDIA | Netizen conversations: Student death, anticorruption show, Great Firewall game P6 HONG KONG | Pressure on dissent increases amid press freedom decline P7 BEYOND CHINA | Confucius Institutes, Netflix market entry, China’s global media influence P8 NEW! FEATURED PRISONER | Zhang Haitao P10 WHAT TO WATCH FOR P10 NEW! TAKE ACTION P11 PHOTO OF THE MONTH A staged fight against corruption In the Name of the People, a new anticorruption drama on Hunan TV that was funded by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, debuted on March 28. Cartoonist Rebel Pepper offers a skeptical take on the popular series, depicting it as a puppet show controlled by President Xi Jinping. Xi has overseen selective, politically fraught corruption probes against high-level officials, or “tigers.” The cartoonist writes, “If Xi Jinping hadn’t given his per- sonal approval, how could this show receive such high-profile publicity?” On April 20, the British group Index on Censorship announced that Rebel Pepper had received its 2017 Freedom of Expression Arts Fellow award. Credit: China Digital Times Visit http://freedomhou.se/cmb_signup or email
[email protected] to subscribe or submit items. CHINA MEDIA BULLETIN: MAY 2017 FEATURE Preparing for China’s next internet crackdown By Sarah Cook China’s new Cybersecurity Law takes effect on June 1. Together with regulations issued Senior Research over the past month by the Cyber Administration of China (CAC)—including on news Analyst for East reporting and commentary—the new legal landscape threatens to tighten what is al- Asia at Freedom ready one of the world’s most restrictive online environments.