ExpansionofFreed_省略_intheInternetEra_LIY.docx

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1、DOI: 10.16696/j .cnki. 1 l-4778/d.2013.04.005 ACADEMIA I BYLIYUNLONG Expansion of Freedom of Speech in China in the Internet Era A basic human right, freedom of speech is a civil right clearly stipulated in Chinas Constitution. Since Chinas reform and opening up, freedom of speech in Chinese society

2、 has witnessed great development standardized by the Constitution and laws. Furthermore, the extent and depth of freedom of speech in China have reached an unprecedented level. In particular, the Internet, which has been increasingly popular in China since the late 20th Century, has energetically pr

3、omoted freedom of speech in Chinese society. The Internet has become an effective channel by which the public can ob- tain information, express opinions and create public opinion in China. Popularization and improvement of the Internet have greatly expanded the room for freedom of speech in China. I

4、. The Internet Has Provided New Channels for Realizing Freedom of Speech Starting in the mid-1990s, China accelerated construction of the infrastructure for the Internet. Under the guidance of the government, China has established a comparatively complete basic nationwide infrastructure for the Inte

5、rnet. The rapid development of Internet infrastructure energetically promoted the use and popularization of the Internet in China. In 1997, China had 299,000 computers connected to the Internet with 620,000 Internet users.1 At the end of 2011, Chinas Internet users had reached 513 million with 55.8

6、million new Internet users during the whole year; the Internet popularization rate increased by 4 percentage point over the end of the previous year to reach 38.3 percent. China also had 356 million cellphone Internet users. In the past 14 years, the number of Chinas Internet users increased 827-fol

7、d. In addition, China has 2.3 million websites with 86.6 billion webpages.2 The rapid development of the Internet and its application have provided new channels for Chinese society and the public to express their opinions and views. First, the Internet has strong data storage and retrieval functions

8、, by which people can conveniently search various information and express and spread various information and ideas. Compared with traditional media like books, newspapers, magazines, radio and TV, the Internet has a huge capacity. Limited by physical form and publication time, traditional media can

9、only cover a limited amount of information and opinion. In contrast, the Internet is not limited by page or channel resources and has an almost limitless capacity. Its huge and increasingly improving capacity for storage and coverage can enable all people to publicize information and express opinion

10、s simultaneously. Common Chinese people who previously had no chance to express their ideas on traditional media can publicize their opinions via the Internet. Second, the Internet has a strong dissemination capacity. With a computer or other Internet terminal, people can send his or her information

11、 to the Internet, which can be used by all Internet users. Such dissemination capacity is absolutely incomparable to even the strongest traditional media. Thanks to the Internet, every Chinese can express their opinions to the public. The Internet also greatly reduces the threshold and cost of expre

12、ssing opinions, and common people in China can express their opinions to the world almost without any cost. Third, the Internet features decentralization and has no center. Every traditional media has a center to which to send information and all information and opinions must go through the center.

13、The information center can determine which information is publicized and which is not. Traditional media automatically serve as an information censoring center. The Internet is a dispersed network without a special information center. Every user can send information to or receive information from th

14、e network. Entering the Internet, the information can be automatically disseminated and copied to all computer terminals HUMAN RIGHTS NO. 4 JULY 2013 15 HUMAN RI6HTS rapidly. It connects millions of computers nationwide.3 Because of the decentralization of the Internet, every user in China can be a

15、news agency and can talk to the public. This undoubtedly has greatly expanded peoples freedom of speech. Fourth, the Internet features instant information dissemination and interaction. The Internet can publicize large amounts of information instantly in a timely way. At the same time, in contrast w

16、ith the one-way information dissemination of traditional media, Internet users can actively select information and make a timely response. On the Internet, users can use various interaction channels such as one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many communication modes. Because of instant information

17、dissemination and interaction, it is now a convenient and efficient channel for the Chinese people to express their views. Fifth, the Internet has the feature of anonymity. Though the person who expresses opinions on the Internet can be traced through their IP address, people can be anonymous while

18、exchanging information on the Internet. Being anonymous or using aliases allows people to express their ideas freely. Thanks to the Internet, Chinese people have more channels to express their views and Chinese society has more room for freedom of speech. II. The Internet Has Greatly Expanded the Sp

19、ace for Publicizing Opinions and Expressing Views The Internet has provided a new channel for the Chinese people to publicize opinions and express views. It has broken through the capacity limits of traditional media. As a result, the huge number of views of the common Chinese people can be publiciz

20、ed. The opinions that could be filtered out by traditional media due to capacity limits can now be publicized on the platform of the Internet. Today, Chinese Internet users post more than 3 million opinions every day through BBS, news comments and blogs. They discuss various topics and fully express

21、 their ideas and demands. Emerging Internet services such as blogs, microblogs, video sharing and social network services provide more convenient conditions for Chinese citizens to exchange views on the Internet. The Internet has substantially expanded the room for Chinese people to express their op

22、inions. The Internet has greatly reduced the threshold for the Chinese people to express their opinions, has increased the number of people publicizing opinions and cut the cost of expressing views. On traditional media, only opinions in line with political and commercial requirements of a few media

23、 and organizations can be published. The scarcity of media resources leads to the necessity of selecting and filtering opinions. But the Internet has changed all this. It breaks traditional medias privilege of information access. Expressing opinions is no longer unique to a few elites. Today, as lon

24、g as a Chinese netizen has a computer, a phone line or a cellphone with Internet access, he or she can publicly or anonymously express his or her ideas, opinions and views. Nearly everyone can easily express his or her views at an affordable price. Every Internet user is a subject who can independen

25、tly express opinions and rapidly and efficiently send his or her views to the public. The Internet is helping the Chinese people to achieve more freedom of speech in various forms. 1. Chinas online news universally has a comment function. Nearly all the news that arouses peoples attention can be com

26、mented on and Internet users can publicize their opinions after reading the news. Some hot news may have hundreds of thousands of comments.4 The comment function is open to all Internet users and they can comment on the news anytime. News comments are very free; they can be a long article, or just a

27、 few sentences. They can even use one word or some symbols to express their views. Such comments are mainly their views at that time. They do not necessarily have strict logic and bases, but can express the Internet users opinions and emotions. News comments actually move the private dialogue among

28、people onto the platform of the Internet so that people can express their opinions to the public. Commenting on news is actually the process of creating public opinion. News comments are characterized by randomness, real-time interaction and long-lasting discussion. Owing to Internet anonymity, peop

29、le can shake off the restraints of formality and institutions, and exchange opinions and opinions freely and extensively. 2. Online BBS are constantly developing. BBS are where Chinese Internet users first expressed their views online. In the early 1990s, China had BBS. At the end of June 1999, Chin

30、a has 1.12 million BBS users, accounting for 28 percent of all Internet users.5 At the end of 2003, China has 14.94 million BBS, online community and discussion group users, accounting for 18.8 percent of all the Internet users.6 At the end of 2006, the number of BBS and discussion group users in Ch

31、ina reached 50.55 million, accounting for 36.9 percent.7 At the end of June 2008, China had 98.22 million people using BBS, accounting for 38.8 percent, ranking No. 9 among all Internet applications.8 At the end of 2011, tfie number of BBS users in China was 144.69 million, accounting for 28.2 perce

32、nt. Now, Internet BBS nearly covers all aspects of our life. Almost everyone can find a special BBS that he or she is interested in or wants to learn about. Various websites, including comprehensive portal websites or functional special websites, also have their own BBS. The Chinese people can easil

33、y find a BBS where they can express their views. Nearly all the portal websites have BBS. On , Internet users can establish a special BBS with any key words. Any Internet user who is interested in an event or topic can click there and express their opinions 16 HUMAN RIGHTS NO.4 JULY2013 ACADEMIA I a

34、nd post photos. On average, about 2 million pieces of information are posted on the website every day.9 In 2009, China had millions of BBS. According to a sampling survey, Chinese people post more than 3 million opinions on BBS, news comments and blogs. More than 66 percent of the Chinese Internet u

35、sers often publicize their views online to discuss various topics and fully express their ideas and needs.10 3. China has a huge number of bloggers. Blogs, also known as weblogs, are comprehensive online platforms managed by individuals where the owner can irregularly post new articles. Compared wit

36、h other Internet channels for expressing views, the blog is a fixed platform where the user can constantly express his or her views and even establish a brand so as to maximize the effect of his or her opinion. Having great capacity, blogs can have text, photos and videos, and can be linked to other

37、 websites. At the same time, a blog itself can be a platform for public views to some extent and readers can express their opinions by commenting on the blog. In 2000, blogs entered China and began a period of rapid development. In May 2005, various portal websites in China like sina. com and launc

38、hed blogs, greatly promoting the use of blogs. At the end of June 2006, 23.7 percent of Internet users in China had blogs, with the total number of bloggers at 29.15 million.11 At the end of June 2008, the number of bloggers in China reached 107 million, accounting for 42.3 percent of all Internet u

39、sers. More than 70 million bloggers updated their blogs and Internet spaces at least once every six months, accounting for 28 percent, up 43.7 percent year on year.12 In December 2009, China had 221 million bloggers, accounting for 57.7 percent of all Internet users. These bloggers were more active,

40、 with 145 million bloggers updating their blogs at least once every six months, up 37.9 percent.13 At the end of 2011, the number of bloggers in China was 318.64 million, accounting for 62.1 percent of all Internet users.14 The emergence of blogs enabled common Internet users in China to have the ri

41、ght to speak. Blogs have become an online news resource. This indicates that hundreds of millions of Chinese Internet users have the room to express their ideas and opinions freely. They can express their requirements, claims, views and emotions and exert public influence. As of July 12,2012, there

42、were three bloggers with the number of clicks exceeding 1 billion, 39 bloggers with more than 100 million clicks and many more bloggers with clicks of more than 10 million or 1 million on .15 Blogs have become an important channel for the Chinese people to express their views and exert influence in

43、real life. 4. SNS have become important expression channels. SNS are Internet application services that can help people to establish social networks. Based on social relations in real life, they can help SNS users to maintain their current social relations, help them locate friends with whom theyve

44、lost contact, enhance their communication scope, look for friends with the same interests, and establish users groups for people with similar hobbies and interests. In terms of information dissemination, SNS have the advantage that people in contact have the same interests and focuses with good effe

45、ct of dissemination. Thanks to interactions among users, SNS play an important role in news dissemination, which can help increase the speed, breadth of coverage and depth of news spread. SNS websites have become important channels through which Chinese people obtain news and information. Chinas fir

46、st SNS website appeared in 2003. At the end of 2004, a total of 13.91 million Chinese people were using SNS (Alumni Record), accounting for 14.8 percent of Internet users.16 At the end of 2005, the number of SNS (Alumni Record) users increased to 29.35 million, accounting for 28.5 percent. At the en

47、d of 2009, 176 million Chinese Internet users, or 45.8 percent of all Internet users, were using SNS.17 At the end of 2011, the number of SNS users increased from 135.05 million in 2010 to 244.24 million, accounting for 51.4 percent of all Internet users.18 5. Microblog services skyrocket, becoming

48、an influential channel for Chinese people to express their views. Through microblogs, users can share, disseminate and obtain information by following the microblogs of others. Microblog users can establish their own individual community, update information using 140 Chinese characters and share upd

49、ates in real time. With strong functionality, microblogs can support multimedia information such as text, photos and video and users can publicize their information via various forms. Microblogs can rapidly disseminate information. By following others microblogs or being followed, microblog users can form a huge dissemination network that can disseminate information on a large scale in a short period of time virally. A microblogs information can instantly be disseminated to thousands of followers. In March 2006, microblog service emerged abroad