School is now in session for China’s entire official press corps after they were ordered to attend at least two days of Marxist classes last month. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal more than 300,000 reporters and editors were to sit through classes where they would be reminded to help foster stability and support for the government and to listen to senior leaders in selecting content to publish.
Of course, the official press corps is not the only news outlet in China. The Chinese government may be even more concerned about the popular Weibo microblogging service. Not to be left out of the government re-education campaign, users were ordered to stamp out what the government describes as online rumor-mongering, according to another article in the Wall Street Journal.
An August 28 Wall Street Journal article noted that Reporters Without Borders ranks China as 173 out of 179 counties on the organization’s Press Freedom Index. The 2013 report also called the country the world’s biggest prison for Internet users active on social media, with 70 users currently imprisoned.
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MAGAZINE MAVIN 