China will draft new regulations to exert tighter controls over
the growing number of blogs and webcasts, the head of the country's
media watchdog said on Monday.
"Advanced network technologies such as blogging and webcasting
have been mounting new challenges to the government's ability to
supervise the Internet," said Long Xinmin, director of China's
Press and Publication Administration.
Long said Internet publishing, blogs, and websites that post
webcasts would be affected by these regulations.
He explained the new regulations would ensure "a more healthy
and active Internet environment" and would "fully respect and
protect Chinese citizens' freedom of speech." He did not give any
specific details on what kind of regulations would be imposed.
The number of bloggers in China reached 20.8 million by the end
of 2006, of whom 3.15 million are active writers, according to the
China Internet Survey Report 2007 released earlier this
year.
The report also said that YouTube-style websites were visited by
about 76 million of the 137 million Chinese Internet users last
year, bringing in 40 million yuan (about US$5 million).
Despite their growing popularity, bloggers and webcasters have
been unpopular with publication authorities.
In 2006, a series of cases involving bloggers who infringed on
other people's privacy and wrote libelous material prompted the
government to consider requiring bloggers to identify themselves
when they register for a site.
Webcasting without copyright authorization and mocking parodies
produced from copyrighted materials have also led government
officials to consider initiating a nationwide check of online video
broadcasting, and allow only licensed websites to continue offering
webcasts.
(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2007)