Reuters: Press Freedom Group Bemoans New Internet Rules

BEIJING (Reuters) - Tough new Internet regulations in China and a self-censorship pledge taken by major Web portals represented a major setback for freedom of expression in China, a New York-based press watchdog said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists blasted China for new rules announced Monday that threaten to fine or close down online publishers if they disobey an existing broad ban on content deemed politically unacceptable.

It also slammed a voluntary pledge state media said was signed by 130 Internet companies in March to promote healthy competition, deal squarely with consumers and observe the ban on a familiar list of touchy topics.

Content such as pornography, which is illegal, mention of Tibet, democracy in China or the banned spiritual group Falun Gong raise concern in China, where the Internet poses a fresh threat to the power the Communist Party wields over other media.

The regulations and the voluntary pledge "indicate a clear step backward for freedom of expression in China," the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a press release on Monday.

"We condemn the government's efforts to force private Internet companies to censor themselves," the committee's director Ann Cooper said.

Different agencies in the Chinese government have issued various regulations governing Internet content over the last two years, with different degrees of authority.

Industry sources say major portals, including Sohu.com, Sina.com and NetEase.com, under threat of being shut down, closely co-operate with authorities on Web site content.

"There's a vague set of regulations out there already controlling freedom of expression on the Internet, and the steps we're seeing... are a fine-tuning of those broad regulations," said Nathan Midler, Internet analyst for International Data Corp in Beijing.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said the March pledge, called the "Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for China's Internet Industry," was signed by Yahoo Inc.

The chief of Yahoo's China unit declined comment and would neither confirm nor deny on Wednesday that his office had signed the pact.

China intensified a crackdown on Internet cafes -- a common way to get online in China, where most people cannot afford personal computers – after 25 people were killed in a fire at an unlicensed Web cafe in Beijing last month. The new content rules also came on the heels of an announcement by the world's best-known hackers that they plan to offer free software to promote anonymous Web surfing in countries where the Internet is censored.