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Some 250,000 reporters in China will have to take an ideology exam to prove they will strictly adhere to the Marxist view of journalism and build the core value of socialism, as the government tightens control of the media.

New rules from the national media watchdog, the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, require journalists to take weekly training courses and pass an exam to qualify for their profession between January and February in 2014.

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"The training should focus on the textbooks compiled by the administration, which falls into six parts, including socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Marxist view of journalism, journalistic ethics, regulation on journalism, news reporting norms and preventing rumors," the Global Timesreported.

These 700-page textbooks contain directives such as: "It is absolutely not permitted for published reports to feature any comments that go against the party line."

And in a separate development, the Hong Kong daily, the South China Morning Post, reported that senior local propaganda officials from the Communist Party would become heads or high-level officials of journalism programs at 10 top-tier universities, in an attempt to ensure their teaching is in line with authorities' directives.

The orders to keep a tight grip on propaganda come straight from the top.

In August at a national conference on propaganda and ideology, President Xi Jinping called for greater initiative to keep the media on-message.

"Publicity work is about the consolidation of the guiding role of Marxism on the ideological front, and the consolidation of the common ideological base for all party members and all the people," Xi told the conference, quoted by the Xinhua news agency.

It is the first time reporters have been required to take such a test, and it must be done every five years. The training is a time-consuming three hourlong sessions a week.

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Chinese Journalists Must Pass Ideology Exam And Stick to Marxist View

Published: 8:25AM Tuesday December 24, 2013 Source: Reuters

China's ruling Communist Party has told the already tightly monitored state media that they should not be reporting on "wrong points of view" and instead cover positive stories that promote "socialist values".

Traditionally, Chinese state media has been the key vehicle for party propaganda. But reforms over the past decade that have allowed greater media commercialisation and some increase in editorial independence, combined with the rise of social media, have weakened government control, according to academics.

However, since Xi Jinping became party chief and then national president, he has overseen a media crackdown to bring newspapers in particular back in line.

Under new guidelines to enforce "core socialist values", the media must "steadfastly uphold the correct guidance of public opinion".

"Strengthen the management of the media, do not provide channels for the propagation of the wrong points of view," read the guidelines, which were published by the official Xinhua news agency.

"News and publishing organs and those who work in the industry must strengthen self-regulation, and earnestly increase their sense of responsibility and ability to promote core socialist values," it added.

China media watchers have pointed to a flurry of editorials after Xi spoke to propaganda officials in August as evidence of concern within the party that control over public discourse was slipping. The official Beijing Daily described the party's struggle to win hearts and minds as a "fight to the death".

Some reporters and academics, however, have traced the start of the tougher attitude to a strike lasting several days in January by journalists at an outspoken newspaper, the Southern Weekly, after censors scrapped a New Year editorial calling for China to enshrine constitutional rights. Xi had taken over the Communist Party only a few weeks earlier.

Xi has also taken a tough line on internet censorship, and the new guidelines implied that would continue.

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Chinese media not to report 'wrong points of view'

With plenty of debates about media bias in the United States, its important to keep things in perspective: at least its nowhere near as bad as the Chinese media clampdown. The Chinese government is attempting to tighten its control on state media, releasing new guidelines ordering official news outlets to avoid wrong points of view and instead promote socialist values in their news stories instead.

There have been concerns recently of state media outlets not being in lockstep with the Communist Party, and so a list of guidelines was sent out and published by state news agency Xinhua.

Under new guidelines to enforce core socialist values, the media must steadfastly uphold the correct guidance of public opinion.

Strengthen the management of the media, do not provide channels for the propagation of the wrong points of view

News and publishing organs and those who work in the industry must strengthen self-regulation, and earnestly increase their sense of responsibility and ability to promote core socialist values, it added.

One of Chinas state newspapers recently wrote an editorial calling for a tighter stranglehold on foreign journalists reporting from within China in order to contain information security, and Chinese state media recently took on what it described as a new form of cultural aggression: Battlefield 4.

[photo via Shutterstock]

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

Original post:
China Cracking Down on State Media: Stop Reporting ‘Wrong Points of View’

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