MCLC: threat to online freedom

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: pjmooney <pjmooney at me.com>
Subject: threat to online freedom
***********************************************************

Source: Human Rights Watch (9/13/13):
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/09/13/china-draconian-legal-interpretation-thr
eatens-online-freedom

China: Draconian Legal Interpretation Threatens Online Freedom
Criminalizing Postings Government Deems Critical a Major Step Backward

(New York, September 13, 2013) – The Chinese government’s new official
judicial interpretation expanding existing law to punish “online rumors”
is a major blow to freedom of expression in China, Human Rights Watch said
today. The judicial interpretation, which went into effect on September
10, 2013, will make it easier for authorities to jail people for
peacefully exercising their right to expression on the Internet.

“Although China’s cyberspace has always been tightly controlled and
censored, the new criminal penalties for online expression are a direct
assault on the relatively freer space generated by social media,” said
Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “The government
claims these new penalties focus only on malicious and libelous content,
but critics of the government and whistleblowers are the real target.”

The judicial interpretation was jointly issued by the Supreme People’s
Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (the state prosecution) on
September 9. It makes the crimes of defamation, creating disturbances,
illegal business operations, and extortion applicable to expressions in
cyberspace.  

“Creating disturbances,” “extortion,” and “illegal business operations”
are already routinely used to detain and jail individuals for their human
rights activism, but the interpretation expands the test of what
constitutes an offense from actual actions to online expression.

Government censors have long pressured netizens and companies that host
online forums to avoid or take down material that authorities find
objectionable. But defamation is a criminal offense under Chinese law.
Anyone who “publicly humiliates” or “invents stories” about another person
can be sentenced to up to three years in prison if “the circumstances are
serious,” according to article 246 of the criminal law.

The new judicial interpretation defines serious circumstances in several
ways, including situations in which people view or click on information
more than 5,000 times or the information is reposted over 500 times. This
is a low threshold, considering that popular topics on weibo are often
reposted thousands of times, Human Rights Watch said. Prosecution for
defamation can be initiated by the government, rather than a private
party, when it “seriously harms public order or the interests of the
state.”

The new interpretation sets out seven such broad and ill-defined
situations, including when the information leads to mass protests, public
chaos, ethnic or religious clashes, adverse social impact, damage to the
nation’s image or national interests, damage with an international impact,
and a catch-all category of “other” damage.

“The new interpretation is worded so vaguely, and the standards for
‘serious circumstances’ so low, that anyone can be jailed for exposing
official wrongdoing, or indeed saying anything the government doesn’t
like,” Richardson said. “If the government is genuinely concerned about
false information spreading on the Internet it should allow a free press
and end media censorship so that rumors can be effectively contested in
public debate.”

Under the interpretation, people whose Internet posts abuse or threaten
others, or who make up and distribute false information, can be prosecuted
for “creating disturbances,” a crime under article 293 of the criminal law
if the actions damage social or public order. Anyone who posts or removes
messages in return for pay or for blackmail can be prosecuted for
“extortion” and “illegal business operations.”

The new interpretation comes at a time of a widespread crackdown in China
on activists, critics, and online freedom. Since August, the authorities
have waged a campaign against “online rumors.” They have warned Internet
users against breaching “seven bottom lines” in their Internet postings,
have taken into custody the well-known liberal online commentator Charles
Xue, have detained hundreds of Internet users for days, and have closed
down over 100 “illegal” news websites run by citizen journalists. State
media reported that the new judicial interpretation aims to provide a more
explicit legal basis for charging people.

Human Rights Watch believes that criminal defamation laws should be
abolished, as criminal penalties are always disproportionate punishments
for harming a person’s reputation and infringe on free expression. The UN
special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression has
repeatedly called on countries to repeal criminal defamation laws.

Such laws are open to easy abuse, resulting in very harsh consequences,
including imprisonment. And as repeal of criminal defamation laws in an
increasing number of countries shows, such laws are not necessary for
protecting reputation. The new judicial interpretation  in China thus goes
against this international trend and serves to further entrench abusive
practices.

“In this never-ending cat-and-mouse game between the government and
netizens for real freedom of expression on China’s Internet, the
authorities are setting new traps,” Richardson said. “At stake is one of
the few mechanisms people in China have to hold authorities to account.”

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on China, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/asia/china


For more information, please contact:
In Washington, DC, Sophie Richardson (English, Mandarin): +1-202-612-4341;
or +1-917-721-7473 (mobile); or richars at hrw.org
In Hong Kong, Nicholas Bequelin (English, French, Mandarin):
+852-8198-1040 (mobile); or bequeln at hrw.org
In Washington, DC, Cynthia Wong (English): +1-917-860-3186 (mobile); or
wongc at hrw.org. Follow on Twitter @cynthiamw