Columbia Law School Scholarship Archive Faculty Scholarship Faculty Publications 2005 Watchdog or Demagogue? The Media in the Chinese Legal System Benjamin L. Liebman Columbia Law School,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Law and Politics Commons Recommended Citation Benjamin L. Liebman, Watchdog or Demagogue? The Media in the Chinese Legal System, 105 COLUM. L. REV. 1 (2005). Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/113 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Scholarship Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Archive. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. COLUMBIA LAW REVIEW VOL. 105 JANUARY 2005 NO. 1 ARTICLE WATCHDOG OR DEMAGOGUE? THE MEDIA IN THE CHINESE LEGAL SYSTEM Benjamin L. Liebman* Over the past decade, the Chinese media have emerged as among the most influential actors in the Chinese legal system. As media commercializa- tion and increased editorialdiscretion have combined with growing attention to social and legal problems, the media have gained incentives to expand their traditional mouthpiece roles in new directions. As a result, the media have emerged as one of the most effective and important avenues of citizen redress. Their role in the legal system, however, has also brought them in- creasingly into conflict with China's courts. This Article examines the implications of the media's roles in the Chi- nese legal system for China's legal development. It shows how media commer- cialization has resulted in incentives for the media to expand the scope of * Associate Professor of Law and Director, Center for Chinese Legal Studies, Columbia Law School.