Internal media of the Chinese Communist Party

Internal media of China enables high-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres to access information that is subject of censorship in China for the general public.

As He Qinglian documents in chapter 4 of Media Control in China,[1] there are many grades and types of internal documents (Chinese: 内部文件; pinyin: nèibù wénjiàn). Many are restricted to a certain administrative level – such as county level, provincial level or down to certain official levels in a ministry. Some Chinese journalists, including Xinhua correspondents in foreign countries, write for both the mass media and the internal media.

Since Xi Jinping became CCP general secretary, internal reports have been increasingly subject to censorship previously reserved only for public media.[2]

Types of documents

The PRC State Secrecy Protection Law[3] (保守国家秘密法; bǎoshǒu guójiā mìmì fǎ) Section Nine stipulates three grades of state secrets: top secret (绝密; juémì), secret (机密; jīmì) and confidential (秘密; mìmì) as well as a fourth grade of information, internal materials (内部资料; nèibù zīliào) that may be read by Chinese citizens only.

The Chinese State Secrecy Protection Law Implementing Regulations (国家秘密法实施办法; guójiā mìmì fǎ shíshī bànfǎ) section two defines these grades of secrecy and the permissions allowed to government departments at each level. In each Chinese administrative region, Party organizations such as committees and disciplinary committees, government organizations such as people's congresses, governments, and consultative congresses, and military organizations such as military districts and their provincial military districts, and the hundreds of agencies subordinate to them issue these three types of internal documents.[4]

See also

• Neican
• Dibao

References

1. He Qinglian: THE FOG OF CENSORSHIP - MEDIA CONTROL IN CHINA Archived 2017-04-06 at the Wayback Machine, published in Chinese in 2004 by Human Rights in China, New York. Revised edition 2006 published by Liming Cultural Enterprises of Taiwan. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
2. Kang, Dake (31 October 2022). "In Xi's China, even internal reports fall prey to censorship". Associated Press. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
3. PRC State Secrecy Protection Law, Chinese language text. Accessed February 4, 2007.
4. PRC State Secrecy Protection Law Implementing Regulations, Chinese language text. Archived 2007-03-17 at the Wayback Machine Accessed February 4, 2007.