"Beijing goes high-tech to block Sars messages," from today's New Zealand Herald;
by February 10 news of a "fatal flu in Guangdong" had reached 120 million people through text messaging, say some reports, and an untold extra number through email and internet chatrooms. Chinese authorities had little choice but to acknowledge the outbreak and try to restore calm. The Government had been taught a painful lesson about controlling the news in a burgeoning high-tech society. That message would be repeated under similar circumstances two months later, when it was forced to admit it had been covering up the number of Sars cases in Beijing. In return, it has since sent a few painful messages of its own.
By mid-February, officials began complaining about the use of text messaging to spread "rumours", deeming them subversive activity and a threat to stability. Then they began arresting people. By the end of May, 117 people in 17 provinces had been arrested and charged with disturbing social order by spreading Sars-related rumours, the Xinhua news agency reported. The official People's Daily said on June 8 that 108 Falungong followers in Hebei province had been arrested for spreading rumours that hindered the Government's bid to control Sars, but did not state how those rumours were spread. In the past, such arrests would probably have received little publicity. But this aspect of the Sars crisis and the following crackdown illustrate the enormous challenges Beijing faces in trying to maintain control of news and information in the age of communications technology, and the strategy it has developed to meet those challenges.
Link to New Zealand Herald story. Also see this Taipei Times article on smart mobs, freedom of press, and SARS, "SARS provokes journalists in China to call for more openness." Discuss
