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Open Source Center Views PRC Media

03.31.09 | 1 min read | Text by Steven Aftergood

The structure and operation of China’s growing news media sector were examined by the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Open Source Center in two previously unpublished reports.

“Sweeping social and economic changes triggered by more than two decades of reform in China have led to equally sweeping changes in China’s vast, state-controlled media environment, particularly in the quantity and diversity of media sources and the development of the Internet,” according to a 2007 OSC survey (pdf).

At the same time, however, “all pertinent information continues to be filtered through party censors to ensure that it is consistent with official policy. The party exercises especially tight control over the core mainstream media which deliver domestic and international news along with politically sensitive information.”  See “PRC Media Guide,” Open Source Center, March 21, 2007.

The state organs that supervise and regulate Chinese media were discussed recently in “PRC State Council Websites Overseeing Media,” OSC Media Aid, March 17, 2009.

Like most other OSC products, these reports have not been approved for public release.  Copies were obtained by Secrecy News.