Concerning “Rumors”: Responsive to the Internet Society of China

The following is a translation of a news article published by Nan Du Net (南都网, Southern Metropolis Daily‘s official website) on Tuesday. Links within the blockquotes were added during translation.

Xinhuanet, Beijing, April 10 - People in charge at Sina, Baidu and Tencent have separately expressed that they will firmly support and cooperate with the government and, in accordance with the law, crack down on and investigate internet rumors activities, will be responsive to the Internet Society of China‘s [more literally: China Internet Council] proposals of sanctions against internet rumors, conscientiously carry out their social responsibilities, maintain obedience to the law and self-discipline, strengthen internet management, and adopt effective measures to resolutely sanction the spreading of internet rumors.

新华网北京4月10日电新浪、百度、腾讯三家网站负责人近日分别表示，坚决支持和配合政府有关部门依法打击查处网络谣言的行动，响应中国互联网协会发出的抵制网络谣言倡议，切实履行社会责任，坚持守法自律，加强网站管理，采取有效措施坚决抵制网络谣言的传播。

The Sina person[s] in charge said that to create an environment with healthy and orderly content and to prevent the production and dissemination of rumors was an internet service provider’s fundamental task, and that (Sina) Weibo absolutely must not become a hotbed of rumor production and dissemination. Concerning individual users unprovokedly manufacturing and maliciously spreading the so-called “military vehicles entering Beijing” rumors, Sina had summoned (Sina) Weibo, as well as technical and other related departments, to define a cleaning-up action plan, to identify and manage loopholes, to strengthen the ability to check on malicious rumors on Weibo, and to perfect emergency prevention measures. Currently, Sina is perfecting content management measures and work coordination mechanisms, and putting chain handling processes for the detection, handling, investigation, and information circulation into effect. The Sina person[s] in charge said that Sina Weibo’s cleaning-up  work had received a wide range of support from the users, and would continue to guide users’ participation in the work of refuting rumors.

新浪网负责人说，营造健康有序的内容环境、避免谣言的产生和传播是每一个互联网平台服务商所应承担的基本责任，微博绝不能成为谣言产生和传播的温床。针对微博个别用户无端编造和恶意传播所谓“军车进京”等谣言，新浪召集微博、技术等相关部门制定清理行动方案，查找管理漏洞，加大对微博中恶意谣言的清查力度，完善应急预防措施。目前，新浪网正在完善内容管理措施和工作协调机制，实现对网络谣言的发现、处理、排查、通报的连锁式处理流程。新浪网这位负责人表示，新浪微博的清理工作得到了广大用户的理解和支持，今后，新浪将继续引导用户参与微博辟谣工作。

Baidu’s person[s] in charge said that as the world’s biggest search engine, Baidu had already become the greatest entry to the Chinese internet, and that by using it, people didn’t only hope to obtain information quickly, but also had high demands concerning information truthfulness and safety. Therefore, to provide true and accurate information was extremely important for the search service company. Currently, Baidu is carrying out comprehensive management against illegal and false information in its search results, and also strengthens joints with the responsible technical departments’ resources, to build multiple mechanisms of interrelated action. Baidu also started a “Sunshine Action” to crack down on false information with manual checks and netizen reporting systems, and will continuously increase technological and managerial investment, to provide more effective protection for vigilance against the dissemination of false information.

百度负责人说，作为全球最大的中文搜索，百度已成为中国互联网的最大入口，在搜索引擎上人们不仅希望快捷地获取信息，也对信息的真实性安全性提出了更高要求，因此，提供真实准确的信息对搜索服务企业极为重要。目前，百度正在对网页搜索中的违法和虚假信息进行综合治理，同时，加强与主管部门的技术和资源对接，构建多重联动机制。百度还发起了“阳光行动”，通过人工巡查和发动网民举报等对虚假信息进行打击，并将进一步加大技术和管理投入力度，为防范虚假信息传播提供更加有力的保障。

The Tencent person[s] in charge said that information security was the lifeline for the internet companies’ development, and internet companies should adopt effective measures to safeguard a harmonious and stable internet environment. For their particular nature, microblogs could easily become main sources and places for dissemination of rumors. Tencent was currently working hard to summarize their experience, to continuously perfect strategies and measures to perfect blogging security, to control the disseminaton of rumors to a maximum extent, and to constantly improve the level of securty and control management.Tencent was also carrying out concentrated clean-ups at QQ Gropus and QQ Space [if these are the correct translations of  QQ群 and QQ空间], Soso, and other interactive services.

腾讯网负责人说，信息安全是互联网企业发展的生命线，互联网企业应采取有效措施，维护和谐稳定的网络环境。微博因其特性容易成为网络谣言传播的主要发源地和传播场，腾讯正在认真总结经验，进一步完善微博安全策略和措施，最大程度控制网络谣言在微博平台上的传播，不断提升安全管控水平。腾讯网还对QQ群、QQ空间、搜搜及其他互动业务进行了集中整治清理。

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Related

» Bye-bye, Bo Xilai, Rectified Name, April 11, 2012
» Self-Censorship Training with Weibo, March 23, 2012
» The “Internet Information Office”, May 6, 2011
» Netizens should tolerate censorship, March 26, 2011
» Sina Weibo, Wikipedia
» Baidu, Wikipedia
» Tencent Holdings, Wikipedia

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Innocents Abroad, travelling Taiwan

This blog is mostly read from the office – traffic during holidays would suggest that anyway. China’s holidays are still ahead, around May 1, and you can guess what’s going to happen on Alishan in Taiwan then, once you’ve read MKL‘s piece – Parallel worlds on Taiwan’s famous mountain.

An even bigger event should be the Golden Week, around October 1.

The second photo of MKL’s post shows – from left to right – Deng Xiaoping (with a white and a black cat tucked under his right and left arm respectively), Chiang Kai-shek (“my dreams have come true! At last, our mainland brothers have returned to the motherland!”), Chiang Ching-kuo (I guess), Mao Zedong (“At last! We have taken back our last province!”), and Soong May-ling (I guess).

Both his post and the comments following it include some thoughts about how Chinese and Taiwanese sightseeing patterns differ in Taiwan – and how they resemble each other once people from either side travels Europe or any other more distant place.

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Related

» All the same, October 10, 2009

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Struggling for the Prerogative of Interpreting the Imperial Court

Continuous economic reforms that promote market forces is the only path that will deliver prosperity to the Chinese people; political stability grounded in one-party rule is the only guarantor against extreme populism and national disintegration; a continuously reforming and meritocratic Communist Party is the most viable political organization that can lead the nation in its renaissance.

Eric X. Li, Shanghai venture capitalist, commenting on (interpretations of) Wen Jiabao‘s reference to possible future tragedies.

Well, Comrade Jiabao? Whaddya say?

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Related

» Once Upon a Time in Sunday School, March 29, 2012
» When will Then be Now, Spaceballs, 1987

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Sina Weibo shuts Commenting Function down

I’m not using Sina Weibo to comment there anyway, but I do “listen” there. Theoretically, I could still listen, as temporary restrictions have only been put on popular microblogging services run by Sina Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., as far as commenting on others’ posts is disabled, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. But in fact, I can’t even read there at the moment – despite my log-in being confirmed.

Please, don’t go away, Weibo!! I can’t live without the Beijing Police Channel !!!!

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Related

» Self-Censorship Training with Weibo, March 23, 2012
» A Common Virtual Space, October 23, 2011

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Update, 11:44 GMT: JR’s Weibo account accessible again.

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BRIC – One Summit, many Interpretations, and Staying Alive in Tibet

The full text of Delhi Declaration, i. e. the BRIC leaders’ declaration of Thursday, can be found on the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ website.

It describes a number of international trends, including the Eurozone crisis:

The build-up of sovereign debt and concerns over medium to long-term fiscal adjustment in advanced countries are creating an uncertain environment for global growth. Further, excessive liquidity from the aggressive policy actions taken by central banks to stabilize their domestic economies have been spilling over into emerging market economies, fostering excessive volatility in capital flows and commodity prices. The immediate priority at hand is to restore market confidence and get global growth back on track. We will work with the international community to ensure international policy coordination to maintain macroeconomic stability conducive to the healthy recovery of the global economy.

No matter if American quantitative easing in recent years, or the European sovereign debt crisis, low interest rates in these countries usually lead to flows of money into emerging markets, seeking better investment conditions, i. e. interest rates there. However, Anand Shankar, a researcher at the Department of Economic and Policy Research, argued late last year that FII (foreign institutional investment) inflows to India had actually fallen after the November 3, 2010 announcement of the American central bank of quantitative easing 2, but attributes this to factors that do not refute the general rule of capital flows from low-interest-rate regions into emerging markets’ equities.

In China’s case, according to an undated paper (including early 2011 data) by Zhang Liqing and Huang Zhigang of the Central University of Finance and Economics, empirical results show that the effect of hot money on both stock price and housing price is insignificant, and the key factor to fuel asset bubbles is the monetary aggregate^*). “Hot money” had, however, been an important contribution to foreign reserve increase. That problem, however, at least according to Michael Pettis, is at least as much China’s responsibility as it is America’s.

The Delhi Declaration basically states that it is the low-interest-rate regions’ responsibility to address the problem, and leaves it there.

The mention of goals like peace, security and development in a multi-polar, inter-dependent and increasingly complex, globalizing world are essentials, but not news – nor are calls on advanced economies to adopt responsible macroeconomic and financial policies, avoid creating excessive global liquidity and undertake structural reforms to lift growth that create jobs. The G20 is determined as the premier forum for international economic cooperation, global governance institutions like the IMF are urged to reform themselves more quickly, the possibility of setting up a development particularly for projects in BRICs and other developing countries was considered on the summit, the Doha Round and global trade get a mention, so does all international, political mega-news, particularly Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, and terrorism.

Fortunately, there’s an action plan, too. Or, rather, an appointment diary for the coming fifteen months or so.

Such touch-on-everything statements seem to be the rule at BRIC meetings – at least Stefan Wagstyl, the Financial Times‘ emerging markets editor, doesn’t appear to see anything unusual in it. They “made the right noises”, he wrote in a blog post on Thursday, but missed the opportunity to back a common candidate for the World Bank presidency from the developing world, even though there is a first-class contender in the race, Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The [wo]man would probably still lose, writes Wagstyl, but the point was that the divisions among the Brics are as significant as their common interests – details there.

Maybe this is the most interesting bit within the declaration:

We welcome the conclusion of the Master Agreement on Extending Credit Facility in Local Currency under BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism and the Multilateral Letter of Credit Confirmation Facility Agreement between our EXIM/Development Banks. We believe that these Agreements will serve as useful enabling instruments for enhancing intra-BRICS trade in coming years.

The master agreement, explains IANS news agency,

is aimed at reducing the demand for fully convertible currencies for transactions among BRICS nations, and thereby help reducing the transaction costs of intra-BRICS trade

.

Russia had made similar suggestions in 2008, in its business with Belarus and Vietnam, plus the increased use of both Ruble and Yuan for mutual Russian-Chinese trade.

South Africa, by now the event’s fifth member, but not represented in its four-letters household name, keeps a low profile in the global summit coverage. But president Jacob Zuma isn’t unhappy:

Africa feels, through the participation of South Africa in BRIC, we have reached, indeed, the mainstream of the global issues. The fact that our independent development banks have signed an agreement to support our projects of BRIC which include those in the continent of Africa brings hope to the African continent, to one billion people who have been, in the main, excluded from the mainstream positive developments abroad.

click logo for audio clip

Wagstyl, being a Financial Times editor (see this post, further up), likes the Delhi Declaration insofar as it makes the right noises – this most probably refers to its call on the advanced economies to undertake structural reforms to lift growth that create jobs. But he also points out BRIC’s weaknesses, using the World Bank presidency issue as a case in point: The truth is that the divisions among the Brics are as significant as their common interests.

In Huanqiu Shibao‘s words, quoting the China News Service:

Chinese state chairman Hu Jintao met with Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, on March 29. Singh said that India neither is neither intending nor in a position to participating in any strategies to contain China. India acknowledges that the Tibet Autonomous Region is part of China’s territory and doesn’t allow Tibetans to engage in anti-China activities in India. India hopes to work together with China to protect peace and tranquility on the two countries’ border regions, and to properly solve the border issues through friendly negotiations.
中新社新德里3月29日电(记者 张朔)中国国家主席胡锦涛29日在新德里会见印度总理辛格。
辛格表示，印度无意也不会参与任何遏制中国的战略。印度承认西藏自治区是中国领土一部分、不允许藏人在印从事反华活动。印方希望同中方一道努力，维护两国边境地区和平安宁，通过友好谈判妥善解决边界问题。

And in real-world terms, outside the diplomatic phrasebook:

There are border issues (with two Indian divisions wanting to die on or near what China thinks is her territory), India hosts Tibet’s government in exile (and will probably continue to do so), and it is, above all, noteworthy that there is a need to state that India won’t participate in containing China, even though there seem to be different interpretations about basically every sensitive issue the two sides keep discussing.

Anyway, many among the Huanqiu commenter public aren’t buying the diplomatic achievement. 说一套，做一套 (they say one thing and do another), one of them wrote today, and 其实银度也是老美的一颗棋子 (in fact, India is just America’s chess piece), another recalled.

That said, Sandip Roy, the First Post‘s editor in Calcutta, anticipates trouble for New Delhi, when it comes to its role as a host for Tibetan clergy, officialdom, and refugees:

Jamphel Yeshi burned himself alive to protest Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to New Delhi. Hu is in Delhi, impassive as ever. The Chinese brushed this off as just another nefarious plot by the Dalai Lama.

The country that really loses face is India. Tibetans were once the feel-good symbol of India’s democratic munificence. Now they have become India’s democratic headache, the inconvenient poor relation who refuses to stay discreetly out of sight. India wants the BRIC summit to go off without a hitch, the interactions with Hu Jintao to be photo-op perfect.

But instead an unemployed Tibetan refugee grabs the international media spotlight, dying with 98 percent burns and leaving behind a handwritten call to action.

[...]

These restless Tibetans, a part of India, yet apart, put New Delhi in a fix. “I think India is playing the Tibet card consciously. But it should not allow it to burst. This kite-flying is part of our diplomacy,” Indo-China expert CP Bhambhri told The Telegraph.

The same phenomenon as in Dharamsala and around can be observed among Tibetans in China, and worldwide: the older they are, the more they seem to be horrified by the ongoing series of self-immolations, and – one may suppose – worried about the repercussions they may have on how Tibetan concerns will be viewed by a global public, too.

Tsering Woeser, currently under house arrest in Beijing, wrote in a statement published online on March 8 that such self-destructive measures did nothing for the cause of Tibetan rights, and called on influential Tibetans, including monks and intellectuals, to help end the self-immolations. Gade Tsering and Arjia Lobsang Tupten also signed the statement.

Staying alive allows us to gather the strength as drops of water to form a great ocean,

they wrote.

Previously, on January 25, Woeser had extensively quoted her husband, Wang Lixiong, in an editorial for Radio Free Asia. Woeser and Wang show due respect for the self-immolators, but also note that

No matter how brave and devoted the self-immolaters are in sacrificing their lives, it will make people think that it is mainly an act of desperation. Any act of self-immolation while doubtlessly instigating emotional turmoil, is also always a sign of helplessness and loss.

Wang tries to formulate a sketch of a Tibetan civil society (without using the word):

Village autonomy can be implemented only through the participation of every single common villager; this will turn the people into initiators and they will no longer have to passively wait for long and inconclusive negotiations by leaders; if this is not done, they will demonstrate under gunpoint and even go up in flames as self-immolators to give pressure to the “game” played at a high-level.

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Note

^*) Monetary aggregates comprise monetary liabilities of MFIs [monetary financial institutions] and central government (post office, treasury) vis-á-vis non-MFI euro area residents excluding central government, according to a ECB definition (see “background” there).

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Related

» All India Radio Press Review, Aug 21, 2011
» Teaming up for Copenhagen, Dec 6, 2009
» Thich Quang Duc,app. SMSU, ca. 2000

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Deutschlandradio Interview with J.-M. Rudolph: can Universities keep Confucius Institutes and Science Apart?

The following is a translation of a Deutschlandradio Kultur interview with Jörg-Meinhard Rudolph – or a translation of most of the interview. The questions were asked by Dieter Kassel, and the interview was published on the Deutschlandradio website on February 6.

Kassel: The Germans have their Goethe Institute, the English have the British Council, and the Spaniards have the Instituto Cervantes. And the Chinese? They have the Confucius Institute. It hasn’t been around for too long; the first one was founded in South Korea, in 2004. But there have been Confucius Institutes in Germany since 2006, and by now, there are thirteen of them. Eleven reside at German universities, and another one at a university of applied science. This practice, [the Confucius Institute's] cooperation with domestic universities, has led to criticism, everywhere in the world. In Germany, too, some experts are asking what the whole purpose of these Confucius Institutes is. Jörg-Meinhard Rudolph is a sinologist, he is a college lecturer at the University of Ludwigshafen’s East Asia Institute, and joins us on the line from Frankfurt/Main. Hello, Mr. Rudolph!

Rudolph: Hello, Mr. Kassel!

Kassel: This comparison, that the Confucius Institute in China is exactly the same thing, as the Goethe Institute is within Germany’s foreign- and cultural policy – is that an appropriate comparison?

Rudolph: It is not. When you are referring to the Chinese and to the Germans, one needs to ask who is standing behind it. After all, it isn’t the 1.3 billion Chinese people or 80 million Germans who operate them. The Goethe Institutes are state-run institutes, paid for by the foreign office, with tax money. The German Bundestag’s budget committee decides about the funding, and everyone here in this country can scrutinize that, and find out what’s going on there, and the employees abroad are appointed after an invitation to apply.

That’s completely different when it comes to the Confucius Institutes. In the People’s Republic of China, there’s a state, too, but there is also someone who rules that state, the Communist Party of China, who  confirm that on their website: we are the only governing party here. And behind the Confucius Institutes, there are top party departments, up to number five in the hierarchy, who welcomes the institutes’ delegates when they have a conference. The man is also in charge of ideology and propaganda, for suppression of diversity of opinion, and similar issues. Further down, there’s a huge apparat, made up by many departments of the Chinese central government, including those in charge of censorship, and similar ones. You can’t compare that. Nobody can look inside, it’s not transparent. That’s the issue – this is a political party, an interest group, which launches all these institutes here, which can’t be scrutinized by anyone in the People’s Republic of China. That’s a big, crucial difference.

Kassel: Alright, that’s the crucial difference between the two states, of course. The Federal Republic of Germany is a parliamentary democracy, and the People’s Republic of China surely isn’t.

Rudolph: No, in China, you don’t even have elections as you have them in Belorussia, or in Iran. [...] If you want to stick to this comparison, one could at best say that both of these institutes are meant to promote the states they come from, for those who finance them. They are meant to create a good atmosphere, put positive things across, etc. That’s what the Chinese say, too. We have the China Cultural Year here in Germany right now, with the Confucius Institutes being involved. The Chinese party leadership talks about exerting soft power abroad, and the Confucius Institutes are to help  with that. This soft power has been defined for this cultural year, too. A new image of the People’s Republic of China is to be conveyed, as open, progressive, tolerant, and bustling.

The issue isn’t that the Confucius Institutes do that – that’s alright, and I have no problem with that. But that German universities, or universities at all, which are meant to be free and independent, are taking part in it, and get paid for it, that’s the issue. The Chinese want to do their propaganda, the Germans, too, for all I care, and let’s see who’s doing better, but that universities and professors provide their reputation to this end, that, in my view, is not acceptable.

Kassel: The university in question say, almost in unison, that they are able to keep these things separate. The Confucius Institutes are located within the universities – you mentioned that, some of them are renowned universities, Freie Universität Berlin, Düsseldorf University, Nürnberg-Erlangen and many others -, but they all say that they keep this separate: we have the Confucius Institute on the campus, there are language courses there, and cultural events, but our sinology institute is still free and independent.

Rudolph: That’s not quite right. The [censoring] scissors are at work in the heads of these people. They know exactly that, if they are sinologists, for example, having cooperations or research, field research in China, they can’t do it the way Chinese, for example, can do it here. They have to cooperate with Chinese bodies. In many cases, these, too, are sub-departments of the central committee. And everyone knows what happens if you attend a talk by the Dalai Lama, for example. There are university boards who don’t go there, and they will tell you why: because they fear that their cooperations will suffer. That, in my view, is not in order. This is where you have to safeguard your independence. After all, that’s how universities came into being in Europe, during the 12th century – as independent institutions.

Kassel: I’d like to quote Michael Lackner, sinologist in Nürnberg-Erlangen, at the sinology department there, and also deputy chairman of the Confucius Institute there. He doesn’t contest what you say. You mentioned the Dalai Lama, and Michael Lackner once said, analogously, that for him, too, the Confucius Institute isn’t the right place to “discuss Tibet, Taiwan, and the Tian An Men massacre”, but added within the same reply that he’s not doing it there, but he’ll walk over to the sinology institute, and  can discuss these things freely there. Don’t you think that this works?

Rudolph: If this is what he does, let’s see what’s going to happen at the Confucius Institute this year, once the material, announced by the Chinese state agency, about Tibet will be published, and which the Confucius will explicitly be provided with, too. That, and other cultural procurement we’ve touched upon. It will all be on display there, it all comes from the People’s Republic of China. Let’s see what they will say about Tibet, or Xinjiang, or other issues. It seems to me that it would be the right time then to discuss one or another of these issues after all. If that should be possible at the institutes, that would certainly spell progress.

[...]

Kassel: Has the presence of the Confucius Institutes, and cooperation with them, really led to tangible consequences, in your view? There is this criticism, in the media, that German sinologists don’t get frequently involved in discussions in Germany, about the way the People’s Republic deals with dissidents.

Rudolph: Yes, they contain themselves in this field, that’s true. I’ve seen this myself, when the Nobel Peace Prize was given to Liu Xiaobo, when Liu…

Kassel: … when it went to Liu Xiaobo, yes, …

Rudolph: … and at the time, I was contacted by some of your colleagues, and often, when I said yes, and glad to discuss this with you, there was this interjection: at last someone who’s willing to discuss this! – Yes, you could say that there is some reservation. It is, of course, an issue what German sinology is doing here, as to how they provide information, and it isn’t a real lot, I believe. What annoys me, for example – but I’m not quite innocent there, either -, is that the big China bestsellers in this country have all been written by people who can’t even read a Chinese newspaper. And yes, I’d blame a certain failure of sinology.

Kassel: Then I won’t keep you from getting down to work and write the next bestseller!

Rudolph: Okay!

[...]

Deutschlandradio added a disclaimer, saying that interviewees’ statements reflect their own views, and that the station doesn’t adopt such statements as its own.

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Related

» He Who Pays the Piper, Jan. 30, 2012
» Come on, Let’s Twist Again, May 26, 2011

Deutsche Welle: “On the Road to Success with Farsi”

The following is a translation from German.

Main Link: http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15661633,00.html

DW, February 3, 2012

Some 70 per cent of Iranians are less than 30 years old. For the future development of the country, they are crucial. Deutsche Welle gets through to them with multi-media choices in the Persian language (Farsi).

Interactive and mobile choices, and increasingly videos – reports as well as commentary – mark the www.dw.de/persian website. The Farsi department also counts increasingly on apps and social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Radio, particularly on shortwave, is hardly used among Deutsche Welle’s mostly young target audience in Iran. Therefore, in fall 2011, linear broadcast of the Persian radio program was terminated. For almost fifty years, they had been on the air from Germany.

The team around department director Jamsheed Faroughi works multi-medially and consists of about fourty members. Their coverage from and about Iran is mostly based on Persian-speaking correspondents. Add informants from all regions of the country, among them speakers of political groups, local journalists and bloggers, human-rights advocates and activists like Nobel-Peace-Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.

The internet choice in Persian language is one of Deutsche Welle’s most successful ones. The website has been blocked in Iran several times, since 2009. However, users in the country are familiar with technical loop ways to load the pages anyway.

Deutsche Welle’s television program can only be received by satellite in Iran. Officially, however, satellite dishes are banned in Iran. Broadcast of DW programs over Hotbird 8 has been bugged repeatedly and selectively by the Iranian government. The signals were localized in Tehran’s immediate vicinity. Voice of America and BBC broadcasts were also affected.

Voice of Germany - we are enthused! (IRIB Tehran QSL, 1986)

Target Groups

Iran’s population is very young – some 70 per cent of the people are under 30 years old. For the political, economic and social development of the country, future multipliers are crucial. They are also those who, in the medium term, will determine public opinion formation. They are therefore our most important target audience. They are not only young, but also better educated, and partly have good English language skills. They mostly live in metropolises and bigger cities. Cosmopolitism, interest for the Western lifestyle, and rejection of fundamentalist tendencies within Islam are their characteristics. Internet and mobile phones go without saying, modern ways of communication such as blogs and texting are part of their everyday life.

Main Topics

Comprehensive, objective information from Iran and the entire region are at the center of our Farsi programs. In addition to current political news they include topics from science, technology, the environment, culture, lifestyle and sports.

There is great interest in Germany among the target groups in Iran. Above all, general information about our country and life and work in Germany are in high demand.

Iran as a Media Market

Intense competition and strong state censorship mark the Iranian media market. On the Reporters without Borders ranking, the country is on position 175, among 178 countries. All television and radio stations are controlled by the state [in the state's hand - in staatlicher Hand]. Commercial newspapers are also closely regulated; during the past years, many renowned papers have been closed down.
Technical metropolitan development is far advanced. Practically every household has television and radio, plus internet access. Television is the main medium for current information. Nationwide, some twelve million Iranians out of 70 million have internet access, according to offical statistics, and the trend is rising. One way to access the internet are internet cafes, between 1,500 and 3,000 in Tehran alone. Particularly active users are multipliers: more than twenty per cent are online on a daily basis. Internet and above all the Iranian blogosphere play a significant role in the dissemination of uncensored information. According to estimates, there are between 50,000 and 100,000 bloggers in the country – frequently journalists and authors, who are affected by state censorship on the established media, and who therefore switch to the internet.

The government, too, tries to use the internet for propaganda. At the same time, it relies on restrictive measures. Internet providers are bound to use content filters which block undesired content and pages. Digit rates for private households have been limited to make use of audio-visual content more difficult. Currently, the government plans to build the internet into a “national intranet”. Censorship doesn’t only affect political content. Generally, programs and media choices in contradiction to the government’s concept of culture are banned. These regulations have recently been tightened.

Satellite dishes remain officially banned. On and off, the government cracks down on them, as many people evade the ban. More than 30 television channels in Farsi are courting the Iranian public from abroad.
There is a lack of reliable information about current affairs. Better-educated Iranians in particular feel a strong need for objective accounts from abroad.

Besides choices from publicly-financed foreign broadcasters, numerous non-public television and radio stations broadcast into Iran. Most of them are operated by exiled Iranians from the U.S. and from Europe. Their political and economic interests are hard to look through.

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Related

» The Persian Paradox, FOARP, January 27, 2012
» DW targets “Opinion Leaders”, May 20, 2011

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17th Central Committee’s “Culture Document” – 11: Go Global, and no Porn!

« Previous leg of this translation: part 10, Linking the Cultural Industries to the National Economy

The following is a translation of the fifth chapter of the CCP Central Committee’s “cultural document”. For more background concerning the document, see that previous post.

Main Link: http://gb.cri.cn/27824/2011/10/26/2625s3413678_3.htm

7) Deepen Reform and Opening Further, Accelerate and Establish Systems which are Conducive to the Prosperous Development of Culture

七、进一步深化改革开放，加快构建有利于文化繁荣发展的体制机制

Culture guides the mood of our times, and is the area most in need of innovation. We must firmly grasp the correct direction, accelerate the promotion of cultural mechanisms, built sound leadership by party committees, administrative management, industrial self-regulation, social supervision, enterprises, institutions and units (danwei) which operate in accordance with the law, based on cultural management systems and vigorous cultural production systems, bring positive market factors in to play in the process of cultural resource allocation, make culture get past [old] patterns, and add strong dynamic force to prosperous cultural development.

文化引领时代风气之先，是最需要创新的领域。必须牢牢把握正确方向，加快推进文化体制改革，建立健全党委领导、政府管理、行业自律、社会监督、企事业单位依法运营的文化管理体制和富有活力的文化产品生产经营机制，发挥市场在文化资源配置中的积极作用，创新文化走出去模式，为文化繁荣发展提供强大动力。

a) Deepen reform of state-owned cultural units. By focusing on establishing a system of modern enterprise, accelerate and promote the reform of operational cultural units, and foster mainframes in conformity with the market. Specify the cultural units’ characters and functions scientifically, distinguish between them, classify them, take a progressive approach, open them gradually, promote normal state-owned cultural ensembles and troupes, press products which are not about current affairs or politics, [ownership transformation of news websites (?) - 新闻网站转企改制], expand the fruits of publication, distribution, and the film industry’s reform, accelerate their transformation into companies and public limited companies, perfect corporate governance structures in line with modern enterprise system requirements, and reflecting the cultural enterprises’ characteristic assets and operations and management organization. Innovate the investment and financial systems, support state-owned cultural companies’ as they face the capital markets, and support them in attracting social capital, and in carrying out joint-stock transformation. Keep the attributes of public benefit in mind, strengthen the service functions, increase vital development, comprehensively promote cultural units’ human resources and income allocation, social insurance systems’ reform, clear service specifications and the strengthening of performance evaluation in mind. Innovate public cultural service facilities’ operational mechanisms, attract personalities who represent society, professionals, and apply grassroots participation and management. Promote the progressive perfection of party publications’, radio, and television management and operational mechanisms. Promote the application of entrepreneurial management at the units, such as normal current-affairs publishing houses, non-profit publishing houses, ensembles and troupes who represent national characteristics and the country’s artistic level, enhance exposure to the markets, and the ability to serve the masses.

(一)深化国有文化单位改革。以建立现代企业制度为重点，加快推进经营性文化单位改革，培育合格市场主体。科学界定文化单位性质和功能，区别对待、分类指导，循序渐进、逐步推开，推进一般国有文艺院团、非时政类报刊社、新闻网站转企改制，拓展出版、发行、影视企业改革成果，加快公司制股份制改造，完善法人治理结构，形成符合现代企业制度要求、体现文化企业特点的资产组织形式和经营管理模式。创新投融资体制，支持国有文化企业面向资本市场融资，支持其吸引社会资本进行股份制改造。着眼于突出公益属性、强化服务功能、增强发展活力，全面推进文化事业单位人事、收入分配、社会保障制度改革，明确服务规范，加强绩效评估考核。创新公共文化服务设施运行机制，吸纳有代表性的社会人士、专业人士、基层群众参与管理。推动党报党刊、电台电视台进一步完善管理和运行机制。推动一般时政类报刊社、公益性出版社、代表民族特色和国家水准的文艺院团等事业单位实行企业化管理，增强面向市场、面向群众提供服务能力。

b) A sound, modern culture market system. To promote cultural products and key elements floating reasonably all over the country, an orderly, modern market system for unified and open competition must be built. The focus must be on the development of books and other publications, digital audio and video products, performing arts and entertainment, television series, cartoons, animation, and [computer] games, and similar markets, for the further perfection of a comprehensive international Chinese platform on fairs and exhibitions, etc. Develop chain operation, commodity circulation and distribution, e-commerce and other modern organizations and forms, accelerate the building of large-scale distribution enterprises and logistical bases for cultural products, build distributional networks for cultural products that understand urban and rural needs, with the big cities as the centers, with small- and medium-sized cities complementing them. Accelerate the development of property rights [or ownership rights], copyright, and key markets like those for technology and information, carefully manage major exchange [markets] for cultural property rights, norms, and transactions of cultural assets and artistic works. Strengthen the trade’s organizational building, and build sound intermediary structures.

(二)健全现代文化市场体系。促进文化产品和要素在全国范围内合理流动，必须构建统一开放竞争有序的现代文化市场体系。要重点发展图书报刊、电子音像制品、演出娱乐、影视剧、动漫游戏等产品市场，进一步完善中国国际文化产业博览交易会等综合交易平台。发展连锁经营、物流配送、电子商务等现代流通组织和流通形式，加快建设大型文化流通企业和文化产品物流基地，构建以大城市为中心、中小城市相配套、贯通城乡的文化产品流通网络。加快培育产权、版权、技术、信息等要素市场，办好重点文化产权交易所，规范文化资产和艺术品交易。加强行业组织建设，健全中介机构。

c) Innovate the cultural management system. Deepen reform of administrative and management systems, accelerate the transformation of government functions, strengthen the functions of policy adjustment, market supervision, social management, and public service, promote the separation of politics and enterprise, separation of politics and business, and provide a reasonable order to the relationship between government and cultural enterprises and units, through control and adjustment. Perfect personnel management, operational management, asset management and lead it into the direction of a combined management system of state-owned cultural assets [or - not sure about the correct translation here - a state-owned management system]. Build a sound and comprehensive administrative and law-enforcement structure for the culture market, and promote a sub-provincial and sub-city administration and responsibility mainstay. Accelerate cultural legislation, define and perfect the laws and regulations concerning the protection of public cultural services, the rejuvenation of the cultural industries, cultural market management, and increase the legal level of cultural construction. Adhere to the management and organizational system, implement principles of who is responsible, and who is in charge, strictly apply policies of cultural capital, cultural enterprise, access and non-access to the cultural product markets, comprehensively apply legal, administrative, economic and technological means to increase management efficiency. Deepen the implementation of “Brush pornography away, and crack down on illegal publications”, perfect cultural market management, firmly remove decadent cultural garbage which poisons the peoples’ minds, conscientiously build a market order which ensures national cultural safety.

(三)创新文化管理体制。深化文化行政管理体制改革，加快政府职能转变，强化政策调节、市场监管、社会管理、公共服务职能，推动政企分开、政事分开，理顺政府和文化企事业单位关系。完善管人管事管资产管导向相结合的国有文化资产管理体制。健全文化市场综合行政执法机构，推动副省级以下城市完善综合文化行政责任主体。加快文化立法，制定和完善公共文化服务保障、文化产业振兴、文化市场管理等方面法律法规，提高文化建设法制化水平。坚持主管主办制度，落实谁主管谁负责和属地管理原则，严格执行文化资本、文化企业、文化产品市场准入和退出政策，综合运用法律、行政、经济、科技等手段提高管理效能。深入开展“扫黄打非”，完善文化市场管理，坚决扫除毒害人们心灵的腐朽文化垃圾，切实营造确保国家文化安全的市场秩序。

d) Perfect security system policies policy guarantee mechanisms. Ensure that growth in public financing of cultural construction exceeds normal growth in public finance revenues, increase the share of cultural expenses in public spending. Expand the range of public financing, perfect financial input methods, strengthen fund management, increase the efficiency of funding used, and ensure cultural service systems’ construction and operation. Implement and improve cultural economic policies, support societal organizations, organizations, donations to and start-ups of non-profit cultural activities, guide non-profit organizations to provide public cultural products and services. [...] Establish a national cultural development fund, expand the scale of related cultural funds and special funds, increase the share of all kinds of lottery-generated means for the funding of non-profit undertakings. Continue the use of coherent policies on the reform of the cultural system, and support the transformation of state-owned cultural units for another five years.

(四)完善政策保障机制。保证公共财政对文化建设投入的增长幅度高于财政经常性收入增长幅度，提高文化支出占财政支出比例。扩大公共财政覆盖范围，完善投入方式，加强资金管理，提高资金使用效益，保障公共文化服务体系建设和运行。落实和完善文化经济政策，支持社会组织、机构、个人捐赠和兴办公益性文化事业，引导文化非营利机构提供公共文化产品和服务。加大财政、税收、金融、用地等方面对文化产业的政策扶持力度，鼓励文化企业和社会资本对接，对文化内容创意生产、非物质文化遗产项目经营实行税收优惠。设立国家文化发展基金，扩大有关文化基金和专项资金规模，提高各级彩票公益金用于文化事业比重。继续执行文化体制改革配套政策，对转企改制国有文化单位扶持政策执行期限再延长五年。

e) Promote the Chinese culture’s process of going global. Carry out foreign cultural exchange on multiple channels, in multiple forms, and on multiple levels, broaden participation in the global dialog of civilizations, promote learning from each other, strengthen the inspiration that comes from Chinese culture, and Chinese culture’s influence, for the joint safeguarding of cultural diversity. Innovate ways and means of propaganda abroad, strengthen [the right to speak ones opinion - or the right to dominate others through words: 增强国际话语权], react appropriately to foreign concerns, enhance the international community’s basic understanding of our country, its values, its path of development, understanding for and knowledge of its domestic and foreign policies, and let them discover the our country’s civilizational, democratic, open, and progressive image. Implement the project of our culture going global, improve and support the policies and implementation of cultural products and services going global, support major media organizations in setting up overseas branches, foster a number of external cultural enterprises and intermediary organizations which are globally competitive, improve dubbing, recommendation and introduction, advisory and similar support mechanisms, and gain access to international cultural markets. Strengthen Chinese overseas cultural centers and Confucius Institutes, encourage academia and artistic organization which reflect our country’s level to play a constructive role within relevant international organizations, and organize the translation of outstanding artistic works and cultural quality products. Build mechanisms for cultural exchange, combine governmental exchanges and non-governmental exchanges, bring into play the role of non-governmental cultural enterprise, cultural non-profit organizations in international cultural exchanges, and support overseas Chinese in actively launching sino-foreign cultural exchanges. Establish cultural exchange mechanisms for young foreigners, and establish an award for contributions to the international dissemination of Chinese culture.

(五)推动中华文化走向世界。开展多渠道多形式多层次对外文化交流，广泛参与世界文明对话，促进文化相互借鉴，增强中华文化在世界上的感召力和影响力，共同维护文化多样性。创新对外宣传方式方法，增强国际话语权，妥善回应外部关切，增进国际社会对我国基本国情、价值观念、发展道路、内外政策的了解和认识，展现我国文明、民主、开放、进步的形象。实施文化走出去工程，完善支持文化产品和服务走出去政策措施，支持重点主流媒体在海外设立分支机构，培育一批具有国际竞争力的外向型文化企业和中介机构，完善译制、推介、咨询等方面扶持机制，开拓国际文化市场。加强海外中国文化中心和孔子学院建设，鼓励代表国家水平的各类学术团体、艺术机构在相应国际组织中发挥建设性作用，组织对外翻译优秀学术成果和文化精品。构建人文交流机制，把政府交流和民间交流结合起来，发挥非公有制文化企业、文化非营利机构在对外文化交流中的作用，支持海外侨胞积极开展中外人文交流。建立面向外国青年的文化交流机制，设立中华文化国际传播贡献奖和国际性文化奖项。

f) Actively absorb and learn from outstanding foreign cultural achievements. Adhere to the principles of self-dependance, self-regardness, to learning from every experience that helps to strengthen the building of our country’s socialist construction, from all positive achievements that can enrich our people’s cultural life, from everything that is conducive to our country’s cultural activities, and to its cultural management concepts and mechanisms. Strengthen our country’s intellectual fields, its talents, and its acquisition of technology. Attract foreign investment into fields and enterprises that are designed for this by rules and regulations, and guarantee the investors’ lawful rights and interests.Encourage cultural units to enter cooperation projects with powerful foreign cultural institutions, learn from advanced production technolgies, and from advanced management experience. Encourage foreign-invested enterprises to carry out cultural-technological research and development, and develop outsourcing. Develop international cooperation in the protection of intellectual property rights.

(六)积极吸收借鉴国外优秀文化成果。坚持以我为主、为我所用，学习借鉴一切有利于加强我国社会主义文化建设的有益经验、一切有利于丰富我国人民文化生活的积极成果、一切有利于发展我国文化事业和文化产业的经营管理理念和机制。加强文化领域智力、人才、技术引进工作。吸收外资进入法律法规许可的文化产业领域，保障投资者合法权益。鼓励文化单位同国外有实力的文化机构进行项目合作，学习先进制作技术和管理经验。鼓励外资企业在华进行文化科技研发，发展服务外包。开展知识产权保护国际合作。

To be continued.