The Era of Total Censorship: What Are Chinese Media People Going Through?

May 20, 2021

original:

https://theinitium.com/article/20180910-mainland-censorship-journalist-in-china/

The Chinese news media industry is going through an era of total censorship.

In 2013, when the "Southern Weekend New Year's Dedication Event" took place, everything began to change significantly. Chinese officials have put forward extremely rare new "propositions" such as "public opinion struggle", "dare to shine a sword", "occupy the Internet public opinion Shangganling", "win the ideological counterattack in the new 30 years", and at the same time launch a crackdown on the old Weibo A series of Internet governance such as big V, supporting new big V, incorporating business leaders, and establishing new party media 2.0 reflect a whole new set of media and Internet governance ideas, governance logic and governance methods.

Since then, the “Ten Articles on WeChat” (“Interim Provisions on the Development and Management of Public Information Services of Instant Messaging Tools”) were implemented on August 7, 2014, and the “Ten Articles on Accounts” (“Administrative Regulations on Internet User Account Names”) were implemented on February 4, 2015. On April 28, 2015, the "Ten Rules for Interviews" ("Regulations on the Work of Interviews for Internet News Information Service Units") came into effect. This series of regulations has been dubbed the "Three Tens" by the official media.

According to official media reports, the "Ten Articles of WeChat" are "to regulate the public information services of instant messaging tools represented by WeChat"; The service and use behaviors of the company have been regulated”; while the “Ten Points for Interviews” “promote the further procedure and standardization of the interviews”.

More importantly, in the newly revised National Security Law of China, network security has become an important part of national security. In July 2015, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the new National Security Law, which for the first time clarified the concept of "cyberspace sovereignty" in legislation.

At the same time, there are also special legal controls on network security. On November 8, 2016, the National People's Congress deliberated and passed the "Cyber Security Law", which was officially implemented on June 1, 2017. On May 8, 2017, a new version of the "Regulations on the Administration of Internet News Information Services" was promulgated, which also came into effect on June 1, 2017. Since then, a large number of entertainment accounts have been shut down in accordance with the new regulations.

By 2018, in the Global Press Freedom Index published by the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), out of a total of 180 countries and regions surveyed, mainland China continued to rank 176th on the list, remaining the bottom of the world. five.

All this, of course, shows a definite result. However, poor international press freedom index rankings and endless regulations and laws can certainly reflect the strictness of China's press control and its place in the world. However, data and laws do not allow more people to see the daily life experienced by most ordinary media practitioners in China in this news and media environment.

This report interviewed more than 20 Chinese media practitioners, some of them are engaged in traditional media, some work in new media; some are engaged in "sensitive" reports such as current affairs and economy, while others are not "sensitive" in writing about entertainment culture, etc. ”… For the protection of the interviewees, this report does not list their names and the names of the media they work for.

This is an oral history of Chinese contemporary news media practitioners. In the era of comprehensive censorship, they have experienced increasingly unfree working conditions without exception. The daily censorship they experienced is familiar to some members of the public. , but more details may be quite unfamiliar.

In 2018, in the Global Press Freedom Index released by the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), out of a total of 180 countries and regions surveyed, mainland China continued to rank 176th on the list, remaining the fifth lowest in the world. .

1. Evolving censorship from bans to laws

1. Start with the ban

In the past, when I went to the news site, I would receive a ban after 2 or 3 days. Later, I would receive a ban on the way to the scene, but I would still go and do the interview, in case it could be sent out later; but now I don’t. Will go to the scene, because there will never be a chance to send it out.

(1) Comprehensive news network media editor, working experience: 6 years.

I have a feeling that I have been in the industry for 6 years and it is obvious. In the past, when I went to the news site, I would receive a ban after 2 or 3 days; later, I would receive a ban on the way to the scene, but I would still go and do the interview, in case it could be sent out later; but now it is not at all. Went to the scene, because there is absolutely no chance to send it out.

Now the notices from the propaganda department are universal across the entire network. Before it became an Internet media, the relevant local departments were in charge of us, but after the Internet, it has become a national media, and will not only receive bans at the central level, local bans, but also publicity departments in other places and the Cyberspace Administration of China. ban.

I once did a World War II topic, and the invited scholars talked about Hitler. The scholars talked about Hitler's merits and demerits from an academic point of view, but the reviewers thought it was inappropriate, because "the verdict cannot be overturned for World War II." The plan given is to retract the manuscript, or delete part of the content and hide the article on the website.

A year ago, I would report on any topic I chose. Right now, we are doing self-censorship, and some selected topics will be killed when they see it, and they will not be reported.

(2) Daily financial reporter, working experience: 3 years.

I am responsible for copying the bans for a period of time. The bans are issued every day and will be communicated to the communication room of the newspaper group. Every day, all the bans will be seen. Some of them are related to finance and economics. Leader on duty. The reason for copying with pen is that it cannot be spread on the Internet.

Some reporters' manuscripts involve the content of the ban, and the on-duty leader will know, and let the reporters and editors try their best not to do useless work. Every morning a meeting is held, and during the meeting, the editor already knows if any reporter has touched the ban.

Bans are titled, mostly notices about doing XXX well, and have a level of confidentiality. But the degree of difference, I do not know. The sources of the ban include the Central Propaganda Department, units at all levels, or competent authorities. The leader of the group can log in to the system and see the contents of all confidential documents.

There are multiple copies of a ban, and at most, there are four or five people in the communication room. In addition to prohibited content, there is encouragement. For example, what meeting was held in XX City recently, I hope that media websites and newspapers will promote it more. I remember that these documents that encouraged reporting included: "Awesome My Country", CCTV's documentary "Forge Forward, Don't Forget the Original Heart", we should also copy these notices.

Copying these confidential documents requires signatures. If the newspaper does not comply with the ban, it will be held accountable. It is possible to trace who copied the ban. At first, I was very complaining, why let the editor do this kind of thing, I think anyone can do it, why not let the intern come. The importance of this was later understood, and it was politically important.

The shorter the secret, the more important the matter. Anything that happened in a certain place is not allowed to be reported, and it is always reported in an official caliber. The shorter it is, the more important it is.

Printed in the paper media is the real thing. The leaders on duty felt that it was dangerous and put the manuscript on hold. It was up to the leaders, and the leaders of the newspapers were very cautious.

(3) National comprehensive network media culture reporter, working experience: 2 years.

Now the censorship does not mean that something cannot be reported, but that it has become a "fire" and cannot be reported. It's not just the ideology itself, that's not the point. Anything that involves a big public reaction, affects social stability, or overheats social hotspots will be restricted. Not only that, the review not only includes what cannot be reported, but what should be reported, what direction to report, and guide in a positive direction. Master the general direction and let everyone do self-examination.

For example, in the report on the excision of Beijing at the end of the year, the media did the bitterness of the petty people, not the ins and outs of the incident. This boundary is not made through notification, but is formed through the media's own judgment. You can't directly criticize the government, but if you feel that this is inappropriate, you will do it in the form of "scratching the ball."

2. Internalization as Self-Censorship

I stayed in Hong Kong for two years, and a year ago I went back to the mainland to work in the media, but the perception of what is a red line and what is sensitive news is a natural thing. . . . Self-censorship seems to have become an instinct.

(4) Senior editor of current affairs journals, working experience: 18 years.

The scariest thing right now is that we don't know where the "bottom line" is and how low the bottom line is.

The mainland's management of online media is divided into "news" and "non-news". Non-news media do not have the right to interview, that is, they cannot do original news, they can only do news aggregation content, and they can only reprint content from media with news qualifications (editors: refer to qualifications). This so-called news-qualified media is a There is a "white list". But in fact, a large number of WeChat public accounts and portal websites are doing news, and they are all trying to brush the ball, but no one catches you. But if he wants to be caught, he is "legally compliant". And in the past two years, it has gotten tighter and tighter.

(5) Editor of WeChat public account, 6 million subscriptions. Work experience: 6 years.

There is an official system that will automatically review your manuscript. One of the functions of this system is "sensitive word trigger". No one knows how big the thesaurus of sensitive words is. We often encounter this situation: I keep telling you "trigger sensitive words", and you keep changing and deleting until the manuscript can be sent out, which is entirely based on self-censorship.

For example, if the manuscript involves "pyramid marketing", I have to think about it for a long time, so I changed it to "scam", castrated myself, and let you review on meaningless issues.

In terms of content, our self-censorship is basically everyone's "political literacy". For example, liberals, liberal views, liberal vocabulary, and characters will be avoided.

When it comes to pornography, it will be avoided. I once interviewed a writer whose automatic mechanisms for self-censorship took my breath away. For example, when it comes to a section of reconstructive surgery on the lower body, he took the initiative to say, "I can replace which words in it with which words, such as testicles and penis replaced by so-and-so."

(6) Weekly international news reporter, working experience: 3 years.

I stayed in Hong Kong for two years, and a year ago I went back to the mainland to work in the media. But my perception of what is a red line and what is sensitive news is a natural thing, no matter how long you leave here, your "political awareness" will not degenerate just because you have been in the Hong Kong media for a while. Self-censorship seems to have become an instinct.

What amazes me is that those young colleagues born after 1995 have a very paradoxical perception of what is politically sensitive, and many of them have returned from studying abroad.

In February of this year, British Prime Minister Theresa May visited China. I compiled the dates and months when the leaders of China and the UK visited each other's countries. Among them, it was mentioned that Xi Jinping visited the UK in 2000. A young colleague around me said, is it too sensitive to mention Xi Jinping? But this is simply ridiculous. I don't understand their judgment on "what is sensitive".

3. The most fundamental is legislative control

The laws and regulations on news control are very detailed. If you want to investigate it, there is no media operation that is completely "violating". This makes every news practitioner have "original sin", which is illegal. Which official account do you think has been banned, and do you dare to go to court to sue?

(7) National Business Week reporter, working experience: 4 years.

To be honest, the generalized discussion of business news is all social news. However, the current trend of reporting is "business talk about business", and social issues cannot be discussed. I have dealt with the company a lot, and now the company is very “smart”, the PR strategy is very perfect, and it has a good response mechanism for negative topic selection, so sometimes we don’t need to review ourselves, and we have already castrated a lot of truth from the source.

Many UGC platforms, most of the content cannot be regulated, but how to manage this? For example, connotation jokes, runaway comics, and jokes about Qiu Shaoyun and Huang Jiguang are all insulting to heroes and martyrs, and they can be killed with the "Heroic Martyr Law". You will find that these seemingly useless regulations can be turned into pretexts for hitting big companies.

There is also the "Touteng War" (Today's Toutiao and Tencent), because of the competition, the two are very fierce, but the two also follow the supervision and retaliate against each other for violating relevant laws and policies, attacking each other in the name of the law .

(8) Senior editor of current affairs journal, working experience: 18 years.

The laws and regulations on news control are very detailed, and there is no media operation that is completely "violating" if it is to be investigated, so this makes every news practitioner have "original sin", which is illegal. Which official account do you think has been banned? Do you dare to go to court to sue? And breaking the law becomes "unpredictable", you don't know which one you violated.

When doing news now, I know "ten", or know what is the essence, but I can't write it. To pretend that you don't know there is a big guy behind it, just write about superficial phenomena.

Many times it is self-censorship. Before writing, I will think about whether it can be sent out. In the past few years, current affairs could not be done, then finance and economics could not be done, and now entertainment could not be done, because it would be characterized as "three customs" and violated core values. There are no outspoken experts in public, and the media is silent. I'm really desperate.

2. Content censorship: from current affairs to entertainment, a comprehensive censorship system

1. Current affairs have always been the most sensitive

At the annual meeting of the newspaper last year, the old leader said: "Thank you everyone for reducing the quality, allowing us to spend another year safely without being suspended."

(9) Senior editor of current affairs journals, working experience: 18 years.

In the past, the media always pursued "big news", but now they all see news that they are going around.

Some time ago, I got a piece of information about the military and real estate, and it cost billions of dollars. The leader's subconscious response was that we can't touch this topic. Let's leave it to Caixin, which is the only media in the mainland that dares to speak out. But half a year has passed, and the manuscript has not been sent.

There are real outspoken media in the mainland, but they have always fought "dead tigers" before (Editor's note: refers to officials who have stepped down or have been officially announced as having problems). Now even "dead tigers" are not afraid to fight, and reports from leaders above the ministerial level are banned.

At the annual meeting of the newspaper last year, the old leader said: "Thank you for reducing the quality, let us spend another year safely without being suspended." This is not sincere, how desperate, this era.

2. The economy and business are not much better now

In the past, we always boasted about China's artificial intelligence, "Made in China 2025", and started to brag about it before it was done. Now the keynote is to "keep a low profile"... The loss of personnel is also serious. Now the weekly magazine has from thirty to forty people to a dozen people. There are many reasons for leaving, many people can't think about it, and many people think about it.

(10) Central-level paper media economic reporter, working experience: 2 years.

A month or two ago, the incident of Didi’s violation in Zhengzhou, Henan (Editor’s note: In May, a passenger on the Chinese online car-hailing platform “Didi Chuxing” was sexually assaulted and killed by a driver.) The incident shocked the whole country. We planned a series of in-depth reports. Cooperate with colleagues at Henan Reporter Station. On the Beijing side, my colleagues and I spent two days writing a detailed report on the safety of hitchhikers, and the reporters on the Henan side also got more "materials".

The night before the manuscript was published, I stayed at the newspaper office until late at night to put the manuscript on the page and the deputy editor-in-chief signed it before I left and went home. I got up early the next morning and checked the website on my mobile phone, and the manuscript disappeared. In the end, I knew that the editor-in-chief took down the manuscript, but did not give the reason.

I was very shocked. The ecological environment of the media I joined two years ago was already bad, but I always thought that the economic version would be better and self-censorship would not be so serious.

If the supervision report on "public power" was withdrawn, I expected it. However, based on past experience, we will definitely report on companies, especially those involving public safety. In the past year or two, newspapers have been emphasizing "safety" and refraining from public opinion supervision of public power, but now there are more and more censorship requirements for companies, especially social-oriented economic news.

In the two months of the Sino-US trade war, when it first started in April and May, the leaders' request was to "set the tone a little higher", but after a Sino-US negotiation, it "softened" again. Reports can't use the word "trade war" and use "trade friction" instead, and reports can't be detailed.

Now (editing: the interview was in early July) the “tune” has been opened again, and there is a requirement to report on the economic friction between the United States and Canada, etc. These are explicit or implicit requirements, and it is increasingly felt that economic reporting is being manipulated .

(11) Financial Radio, reporter, working experience: 6 years.

One of the most invariable red lines is that "singing badly about China" is not acceptable.

Our caliber is that the local media follow the central media, only "prescribed actions" but not "optional actions", and follow the caliber of Xinhua News Agency and CCTV. In the daily reports of financial news, if the stock plummets, only the word "fall" can be used, and market panic cannot be created. One of the most invariable red lines is that "singing badly about China" is not acceptable.

In the Sino-US trade war, the issue of ZTE attracted attention at the beginning, but whether ZTE has done something wrong cannot be mentioned, and content that is unfavorable to our country should be avoided. In the past, we always bragged about how China's artificial intelligence was. Before "Made in China 2025" was done, we started to brag about it. Now the keynote is to "keep a low profile."

(12) National Business Weekly, business reporter, working experience: 4 years.

The bans we receive are sometimes faxed over, and the editor-in-chief will tell us, either hurry up or stop. In my impression, after removing the low-end population, the reports of Beijing Red, Yellow and Blue Kindergartens (on the website) disappeared very quickly. The report of Shanghai Ctrip Kindergarten was withdrawn within an hour after it went online. We took the initiative to withdraw the website and WeChat, and we were more obedient.

For example, in the movie "I'm not the God of Medicine", there were no problems for the first three days, and the ban came on the fourth day, so don't write it. We got an exclusive interview with the director, and it didn't come out after that. Because it cannot attack government and legal policies. The media that publishes later will suffer more. First, some angles have been written out, and second, the most important points are also blocked by supervision.

In business reports, the normal logic should be to find a business perspective from social hotspots. In order to avoid social sensitivity, we will conduct self-censorship on the risk of manuscripts, and choose a compromise security plan, transfer logic, and find a social perspective from commercial hot spots.

The loss of personnel is also serious. Weekly now from thirty to forty people to a dozen people. There are many reasons for leaving, many people can't think about it, and many people think about it.

Go to group training every month. People from the Cyberspace Administration of China come to the group for training every month, mostly on ideological content. The objects of the training are the gatekeepers of some content, such as the person in charge of the WeChat department.

Sometimes our works just disappear like this, such as articles posted on the WeChat public account, as if nothing ever happened. The editor-in-chief said to quickly make a screenshot, and if you die, it will be gone.

3. International news cannot be insinuated

When reporting on the Belt and Road Initiative, try not to involve politics, but do economic and cultural content. If you are writing about foreign politics, you are also reporting on their own country's politics, and they will not write about their situation in China.

(13) National Weekly, reporter, working experience: 3 years, international reporter.

In international reports, politics and revolution are taboo topics. During the period of the revision of the constitution, Putin or some other "dictatorial" countries could not be mentioned. The authorities would consider this an insinuation.

I remember once, Forbes released the list of the most powerful people in 2018, and Xi Jinping was at the top of the list. Our draft did not mention the fact that Xi Jinping was at the top of the list. But after the manuscript was released, the Cyberspace Administration of China called to criticize it, and the manuscript was directly "harmonized".

The word check, the newspaper society has an experienced text proofreading, not just proofreading typos.

Another thing I'm not used to is that I do international news and I have to go over the wall every day. It has been less than a year since I came back, and I have changed the VPN 4 times. Each time, the VPN was blocked after a short period of time. But many of them are annual fees that I pay for 1 year. VPN is useless, and there is no place for refunds. And the two news organizations I have worked with don't have corporate VPNs, so we have to figure out how to do it ourselves, maybe they don't want to take the risk of building a VPN.

4. Character reports, taboos everywhere

"The tone of the whole article is dark, don't use this type of article on the cover." ... The magazine has turned to entertainment and become an entertainment medium. Even the name of the WeChat public account has been changed, and it has become a public account of pure entertainment, writing very popular stars. A look of self-defeating, this year, the above criticized you for being too entertaining, and you will not let yourself be self-defeating.

(14) People magazine, senior reporter, working experience: 8 years.

For many manuscripts, the leader will ask one sentence to be written carefully. I once wrote about a character who, on the surface, is an exquisite person with all aspects. How to achieve success, the deep meaning is his degeneration, and what is behind the manuscript shows the real problems. After this character draft was handed over to the competent department, the evaluation was, "The tone of the entire article is dark, so don't use this type of article on the cover." In order to send the draft, I finally made a lot of concessions.

People who used to be able to write about controversy are now unable to. This is also the result of self-censorship by internal leaders. For example, some negative characters are not allowed to write, such as Edison Chen, PG One, Yin San'er (Editor: An underground HIP-POP group in Beijing), they are not banned by the official regulations, but everyone seems to know that they can't bump.

To be honest, our space is so limited, and the supervisor has nothing to complain about. On the contrary, I am very grateful to my supervisor, who is more lenient towards us.

(15) Current political figures magazine, photojournalist, working experience: 5 years.

In 2014 and 2015, I photographed a lot of people who seem to be very sensitive now, including Ai Weiwei, He Weifang, Xu Youyu, Pu Zhiqiang, Zhang Sizhi, etc. At that time, these characters could be made. At that time, the magazine was positioned as a political and business magazine. He has done reports on current affairs that are hard on current affairs, and sometimes long stories are hidden in the content and not written on the cover. For example, people like Hou Dejian, as well as investigation reports on environmental pollution, are also published in this column.

In 2015, our magazine also quoted a popular saying at that time, the world is sinking, we are carnival. Because at that time, the print media was no longer enough, but our magazine felt that we could continue. When the annual meeting is held, this kind of slogan is posted on the entrance of the hotel. But after the annual meeting, the media plummeted, and the situation for our magazine took a turn for the worse.

In 2016, I made a cover of Hu Yaobang, which almost stopped publication. The magazine was then liquidated and pledged not to touch these political topics.

By the second half of 2016, the magazine has fully turned to entertainment and become an entertainment medium. Even the name of the WeChat public account has been changed, and it has become a public account of pure entertainment, writing very popular stars. A self-defeating look, this year the above criticized you for being too entertaining. Don't give up on yourself. Shows like "China has hip-hop" are also banned, because entertainment will also give you freedom.

I've seen this medium go from prosperity to decline, like a flash in the pan. In the past, cultural figures and entertainment figures were divided into five and five. It's not anymore. In desperation, the magazine is no longer a news magazine, but a fashion magazine. The proportion of stars is increasing, Wu Yifan, TFBoys, and some Internet celebrities.

This era is an era of sinking voice. When I first entered the industry in 2013, at least the media was still in the era of elites. The elites had the right to speak, and cultural people decided what the public saw. But now everyone wants to see entertainment stars, and the public decides what the media people write about.

I have experienced several groups of reporters. When I first came, they were all born before 1985 (people born before 1985), and later they were all post-85s. Now all the reporters around me are post-90s. The loss of reporters is too fast, and now the discussion in the work group is "Creation 101" and some popular TV series. People before 1985 all went to earn money, and some went to Xinshixiang, 36Kr, and Toutiao. I guess it is because the new technology media gives more money, why some media people are reluctant to do public relations, while the technology media gives more money without the pressure of political censorship, as if they are doing useful things.

Reporters born in the 1985s are more confused. Before 1985, they had the right to speak, and if they wanted to understand, they turned. If the post-85 generation hasn’t figured it out yet, the industry will be doomed. They haven’t accumulated enough resources yet, and they don’t know what they can do. And the reporters of the 1995s are very accepting of these entertainment-oriented times. The most painful reporters born in the 1985s are quite confused.

I'm a fan of elite culture myself, I can't be elite myself, but I like that too. I think this era is boring and has a low laugh.

5. Cultural entertainment news is walking a tightrope

In the past two years, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has often appeared in entertainment news, and the deepest feeling is that there have been more restrictions on entertainment. At present, the control of entertainment is to grasp the source and tighten the entire cultural industry. The coverage of the report is only a small aspect of the impact of radiation... Now Weibo has added a "New Era" column to talk about the core of socialism. value.

(16) News website, reporter, working experience: 3 years, history.

The history channel we do is a bit more academic, and we invite teachers and students majoring in history, and even some teachers majoring in archaeology.

In this "dead" news report, the gap is also tightening. For example, 3 years ago, you can also write content related to Mao Zedong, including seminars, lectures and articles. It is no longer possible now, not for the educated youth and the Cultural Revolution. In one sentence: Don’t touch it after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, don’t touch it in the early days of the founding of the Party, and pay attention to the content of the late Qing Dynasty.

Sometimes the historical content also involves foreign student movements, but this is not acceptable. The French May storm of 1968 can't be written about either.

(17) National Weekly, reporter, working experience: more than 10 years, culture.

Documentaries related to the Cultural Revolution, and negative ones in China, cannot be reported. For example, at the Cannes Film Festival, Wang Bing's eight-hour feature film "Dead Souls" based on the Cultural Revolution was not allowed to write; at the Annecy Animation Festival, Liu Jian's animation "Big World" (also known as "Excellent") was not allowed. Let do, which is said to involve demolition. But instead of setting the box before, these are things that can’t be done after the fact. Recently, Cui Yongyuan reported the yin-yang contract, and his superiors said that he could not do it.

(18) Portal, entertainment news editor, working experience: 10 years.

Our management is not the most direct, the most direct is to rectify the entire entertainment industry from the source. For example, artists with dyed hair cannot appear on the screen. The red-haired Li Dan and Da Zhangwei had to dye their hair back, and Dou Jingtong had to have tattoos to be mosaicked.

My impression is that the control of China Entertainment News began with Wang Baoqiang's divorce. We have never seen a specific ban, only some verbal communication. The negative energy of Wang Baoqiang's divorce case is too strong. This kind of news about the derailment and cheating of celebrities affecting the positive energy of the society cannot be widely reported or recommended on the first screen.

Entertainment news is getting tighter and tighter, plus the self-censorship of each media, I would definitely rather be strict and not make mistakes.

After the news of the hot search on Weibo, (Editor's Note: In May 2018, Sina Weibo issued the "Announcement on Strengthening the Handling of the Behavior of the Hot Topics in the Hot Search List"), some changes were also made, such as the extremely high traffic. content, it will limit the flow of processing. Some hot searches will be downgraded, and maybe those who were in the top ten will be in the back row. Now, a "New Era" column has been added to Weibo's hot search, which talks about the core socialist values.

There will also be some hot posts. After forwarding comments to a certain extent, they will be hidden, and only you can see them, but others cannot.

In entertainment reports, there are some regulations restricting the use of words in news every year, such as the use of ripped, forced, diaosi, etc. in the title.

During the ban on South Korea, satellite TV, websites, and traditional news will not report South Korean entertainment news.

Entertainment news involving politics is expressly prohibited, such as Cui Yongyuan, because it involves the issue of national taxation; last year's popular anti-corruption drama "In the Name of the People", in the second half of the broadcast, the focus of public opinion was on corruption. request to cool down. "I'm not the God of Medicine" is the same. Anything that leads public opinion to the government will not work.

The entertainment news in the past ten years has been dominated by celebrity gossip, but in the past two years, none of this can be done. The studio of the famous paparazzi Zhuo Wei was closed, and a large number of entertainment public accounts were suddenly closed.

There are also many more sensitive people in the entertainment industry. For example, PG One, who was officially banned, cannot use inferior artists, such as Huang Haibo, Ke Zhendong, and criminal cases such as drug addiction and whoring. There are also some artists involved in Hong Kong. This kind of situation was rare before. All I can think of is Tang Wei who filmed "Lust, Caution".

There are even more restrictions on the content creation of TV dramas. One after another, the earliest is not to cross, not to clean the palace, not to resist Japan, not to promote homosexuality, not to show off wealth in the content, etc. The way of reporting that is too gossip will increase the risk of policy, but entertainment is inseparable from gossip. I don't know since when, doing entertainment news has become a tightrope walk.

Our management is not the most direct, the most direct is to rectify from the source. For example, artists with dyed hair cannot appear on the screen. The red-haired Li Dan and Da Zhangwei had to dye their hair back, and Dou Jingtong had to be mosaicked if he had tattoos.

In "Extreme Challenge", it was postponed for several issues, because there was an anti-counterfeiting content, which was considered to affect the unity of the people; in "Star Detective", the word "killer" was not allowed, it was changed to "mysterious character K", "Dead" is also not allowed, it affects young people, and it is changed to "coma". In the summer vacation, there is another "entertainment restriction order". (Editor's note: In the name of protecting young people, the propaganda department has launched a new round of entertainment restriction orders, which has resulted in many variety shows being taken off the shelves.) The restrictions on the creation of TV series content are even more numerous. In the first round, at the earliest, it was impossible to cross, to clear the palace, to fight against Japan, to promote homosexuality, to show off wealth in the content, and so on.

The way of reporting that is too gossip will increase the risk of policy, but entertainment is inseparable from gossip. I don't know since when, doing entertainment news has become a tightrope walk.

Another example, star Yuan Li broke the news that some female stars even ate fast and chanted Buddha every day in order to become popular, and went to Thailand to invite little ghosts to apply corpse oil into lipstick on their lips, which became the top three in the hot search. This kind of Weibo will be on the hot search, but the news will not be done, because it involves feudal superstition.

Although there are so many bans, when you go to the comment area of netizens, the messages you see are mostly small pinks. Netizens' political consciousness is very high, and some people will comment below Xu Ruoxuan: "How can Taiwanese female stars be reported." Someone below Huang Qiusheng said, "Hong Kong independence elements, no wonder they can't find their relatives." Following the report on the Korean restriction order, some netizens will say, "It should be restricted forever."

6. Reader interaction, reset limits

(19) Comprehensive news network media, editor, working experience: 6 years.

The column I am in charge of is a column that invites news parties or experts in news-related fields to interact with netizens. Unlike general news operations, the content of general news is checked by reporters and editors, but we cannot edit and revise the comments of netizens. We cannot tell netizens what you can say and what you cannot write.

This is originally an interactive column, and it is impossible to turn off the comment area. Therefore, we will review it. First, there is a sensitive word thesaurus that will be automatically filtered, and content with sensitive words cannot be sent. In addition to this, we also have to manually check the content of the comment area.

The news is getting smaller and smaller. In the past, LGBT topics could be discussed, but since 2016, it can’t be touched. Many posts discussing public power, such as urban management and grassroots police, will have many readers breaking the news below, and such breaking news posts must be deleted.

3. Fully manage the new media

1. WeChat public account

In the past, Tencent would warn first. After several warnings, it would be suspended for a week or a month. Tencent has blocked 100,000 official accounts this year. This data is still very scary. Of course, some of the content may be particularly low, but it also includes the appearance Nice quality media.

(20) WeChat public account with more than 1 million subscribers, working experience: 2 years, non-fiction content editor.

For WeChat public account, there is no reviewer system of traditional media, but everyone needs to know where the boundaries are.

According to the information frequently exchanged internally, a department of the Cyberspace Administration of China has been monitoring these official accounts in the past six months. In the past, they deleted the manuscripts and even deleted the information in the background, but now they are directly banned. And this work may not be dominated by Tencent, they may just cooperate with the operation.

"Poison Tongue Movie" (Editor's Note: Wechat official account that reports entertainment movie gossip), although many connections with the Cyberspace Administration of China were found, it was of no use because it was named directly. During that time, Mi Meng (Editor's Note: WeChat public account) was locked in a small black room, in disguise to protect it.

After this wave of crackdowns, I think everyone knows where their boundaries are. During the peak period of the title, we also took the initiative to delete a batch of manuscripts. The first category is related to politics, and we will never publish it. We will also delete those things that "trickle the edge" with politics, such as removing the low-end population in Beijing, and they are more related to the general environment, so we will delete them.

There is also a category of "three vulgars", but not the "three vulgars" in the true sense (Editor's note: vulgar, vulgar, kitsch), such as those related to sex, and LGBT. We have done stories related to prisons before, but if we feel that it involves the public security law (Editor's note: public security, procuratorial, court), we will delete it.

In this regard, traditional media are stricter than us, and the notices they receive may limit even "negative emotions".

Online media do not have the right to interview, and we are also afraid that the management department will make an article on this issue. So even if we interviewed ourselves, we would not write the word "interview", but instead "record". Although there is no express requirement, it is all out of self-protection.

The current processing is often irregular. In the past, Tencent would warn first. After several warnings, it would be suspended for a week or a month. Tencent has blocked 100,000 official accounts this year. This data is still very scary. Of course, some of the content may be particularly low, but it also includes the appearance Nice quality media.

Entrepreneurial projects are under a lot of pressure. Because of the high cost, we cherish this opportunity and dare not be sloppy on security. For example, after the poison tongue movie was blocked, the 5 million tuba at that time was renamed, and the number of subscriptions must have dropped. Although it has been restored for a year, it will not be restored at the best time. And can not use the original name, which is a great loss to the brand. Accumulating a brand is hard, tearing it down is easy.

Investors meet with us and often discuss how to deal with risks. For example, as soon as the news that "Curiosity Daily" was suspended for a month, we will communicate to see if the wind is getting tighter now.

The new media people do not have a strong sense of security. The dividend period of WeChat has passed, and now it is a downward stage. There is no other big traffic platform. Content, communication channels, business models, these are all problems.

(21) WeChat public account with more than 6 million subscriptions, working experience: 6 years, editor of urban topics.

Most of the time we write emotional content, and there are not so many red lines. But I also feel that the wind direction is tightening, and the content that mentions crime, fraud, dead people, and human tragedies caused by social injustice must be deleted.

The content we write is actually very soft, such as the life of urban young people. However, there will be some content that is not allowed to be reported, such as sexual partners, and women who have multiple sexual partners cannot be interviewed; I wrote about Kuaishou, before Kuaishou was rectified, and talked about various strange phenomena of Kuaishou. After Kuaishou was rectified, the manuscript was also deleted. .

There is a deep sense of powerlessness that everything is changing in China.

We are a WeChat account, and all parties pay more attention to us, such as taxation, distribution methods, and online sales. The industry and commerce will come to pay attention and warn you not to qualify. The propaganda outlet in the area where our office is located also asks us to join the local labor union. My real name and phone number are inexplicably recorded, and messages are sent to me, such as: "Let's go up together and learn from President Xi's speech."

Generally only big media with an official background receive a ban. Online platforms, such as Sina and Tencent, will receive the notification immediately, and then the news of the propaganda will spread and spread to the new media and self-media. If you dare to post, you will step on the line and see if the above can mess with you.

The matter of the "Red, Yellow and Blue Kindergarten" and the expulsion of the "low-end population" are very frustrating. We media have made a batch of courier boys, takeaways, young couples from supermarkets, and Beijing's little people's manuscripts, but this kind of report is very It will be deleted soon. Later, the leaders of Beijing went down to shake hands with these people and said that they should respect these most ordinary working people, and the official media turned around in various ways. I was really angry.

2. New media news platform: "Do not produce content, but be responsible for the content"

(22) Internet news platform, project manager, working experience: 3 years.

The platform must also have "values", that is, although the platform does not produce content, it is responsible for the content.

We are a large information publishing platform, and we will control non-institutional creators from the source to make news. For UGC (Editor's Note: User Generated Content), political and social news cannot be touched, and the rest can only be entertainment and funny content. We have a content quality center with thousands of people, both at home and abroad. What we have to do is to cooperate with the local policies of various countries, "anti-vulgarity, anti-pornography, and anti-rumours", and delete manuscripts according to the ban. In fact, these standards are not endogenous, they are all external requirements of us.

3. Short videos that can only "eulogize positive energy"

I'm not satisfied with the consumption of Qiqi News, the blind pursuit of traffic, and the "kneeling and licking" of "official media". After I felt that everything was becoming more and more meaningless, I finally had to choose to leave.

(23) Short video website, video editing, working experience: 3 years.

I joined the company to do current affairs news in 2016, and my slogan was "The Surging of the Short Video Industry". Later, because of a news accident in a short video, I touched some politically sensitive news, and turned to entertainment completely, making short videos of the "Zhiyinti" (Editor's Note: A magazine in mainland China that sells emotional stories as its selling point).

The biggest change is the "proud of the official media". In the past, the official media was actually "stigmatized", and everyone laughed at the official media. Now, if a video is reposted on the official Weibo of People's Daily and Ziguangge, everyone thinks it's an honor, and they have to show it. Special said.

At the beginning of doing short video reports, you will fall into a traffic carnival. Many videos have been viewed by millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions. Then it's easy to get complacent. But what actually happened? It's a hot spot, and it's gone with a gust of wind. The longer you do it, the more you feel the nothingness after this carnival.

When I first came here, I was looking forward to the new news format, several hundred million investment, and the reporters who were recruited were senior reporters from another big media. The topics selected at that time were short videos such as surveys and documentaries, because the print media and TV media at that time were no longer available, and I was very optimistic about the new medium of short videos. In the beginning, I also made a sensational report, Liangshan orphans, juvenile factories and so on.

But at the beginning of doing investigative journalism, it was "broken". Internet media did not have the right to interview, and short news video websites were banned, so later they could only report on social scraps. For the sake of traffic, a 9-year-old girl was pregnant, but later this was not allowed, because it belonged to "three common" news.

Then I can only do a "heart-warming" report of the guy going to the fire to save people, and the bus driver slamming on the brakes to save people. But is "warm heart" the truth of this society? And do some reports on "Praise for Positive Energy", the most beautiful police officer, the most beautiful city management officer, and the most beautiful civil servant, does it make sense?

I was dissatisfied with the consumption of Liqi news, blindly pursuing traffic, and I was also dissatisfied with the "kneeling and licking" of "official media". After feeling that everything became more and more meaningless, I finally had to choose to leave.