ExpansionofFreed_省略_intheInternetEra_LIY.docx
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1、DOI: 10.16696/j .cnki. 1 l-4778/d.2013.04.005 ACADEMIA I BYLIYUNLONG Expansion of Freedom of Speech in China in the Internet Era A basic human right, freedom of speech is a civil right clearly stipulated in Chinas Constitution. Since Chinas reform and opening up, freedom of speech in Chinese society
2、 has witnessed great development standardized by the Constitution and laws. Furthermore, the extent and depth of freedom of speech in China have reached an unprecedented level. In particular, the Internet, which has been increasingly popular in China since the late 20th Century, has energetically pr
3、omoted freedom of speech in Chinese society. The Internet has become an effective channel by which the public can ob- tain information, express opinions and create public opinion in China. Popularization and improvement of the Internet have greatly expanded the room for freedom of speech in China. I
4、. The Internet Has Provided New Channels for Realizing Freedom of Speech Starting in the mid-1990s, China accelerated construction of the infrastructure for the Internet. Under the guidance of the government, China has established a comparatively complete basic nationwide infrastructure for the Inte
5、rnet. The rapid development of Internet infrastructure energetically promoted the use and popularization of the Internet in China. In 1997, China had 299,000 computers connected to the Internet with 620,000 Internet users.1 At the end of 2011, Chinas Internet users had reached 513 million with 55.8
6、million new Internet users during the whole year; the Internet popularization rate increased by 4 percentage point over the end of the previous year to reach 38.3 percent. China also had 356 million cellphone Internet users. In the past 14 years, the number of Chinas Internet users increased 827-fol
7、d. In addition, China has 2.3 million websites with 86.6 billion webpages.2 The rapid development of the Internet and its application have provided new channels for Chinese society and the public to express their opinions and views. First, the Internet has strong data storage and retrieval functions
8、, by which people can conveniently search various information and express and spread various information and ideas. Compared with traditional media like books, newspapers, magazines, radio and TV, the Internet has a huge capacity. Limited by physical form and publication time, traditional media can
9、only cover a limited amount of information and opinion. In contrast, the Internet is not limited by page or channel resources and has an almost limitless capacity. Its huge and increasingly improving capacity for storage and coverage can enable all people to publicize information and express opinion
10、s simultaneously. Common Chinese people who previously had no chance to express their ideas on traditional media can publicize their opinions via the Internet. Second, the Internet has a strong dissemination capacity. With a computer or other Internet terminal, people can send his or her information
11、 to the Internet, which can be used by all Internet users. Such dissemination capacity is absolutely incomparable to even the strongest traditional media. Thanks to the Internet, every Chinese can express their opinions to the public. The Internet also greatly reduces the threshold and cost of expre
12、ssing opinions, and common people in China can express their opinions to the world almost without any cost. Third, the Internet features decentralization and has no center. Every traditional media has a center to which to send information and all information and opinions must go through the center.
13、The information center can determine which information is publicized and which is not. Traditional media automatically serve as an information censoring center. The Internet is a dispersed network without a special information center. Every user can send information to or receive information from th
14、e network. Entering the Internet, the information can be automatically disseminated and copied to all computer terminals HUMAN RIGHTS NO. 4 JULY 2013 15 HUMAN RI6HTS rapidly. It connects millions of computers nationwide.3 Because of the decentralization of the Internet, every user in China can be a
15、news agency and can talk to the public. This undoubtedly has greatly expanded peoples freedom of speech. Fourth, the Internet features instant information dissemination and interaction. The Internet can publicize large amounts of information instantly in a timely way. At the same time, in contrast w
16、ith the one-way information dissemination of traditional media, Internet users can actively select information and make a timely response. On the Internet, users can use various interaction channels such as one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many communication modes. Because of instant information
17、dissemination and interaction, it is now a convenient and efficient channel for the Chinese people to express their views. Fifth, the Internet has the feature of anonymity. Though the person who expresses opinions on the Internet can be traced through their IP address, people can be anonymous while
18、exchanging information on the Internet. Being anonymous or using aliases allows people to express their ideas freely. Thanks to the Internet, Chinese people have more channels to express their views and Chinese society has more room for freedom of speech. II. The Internet Has Greatly Expanded the Sp
19、ace for Publicizing Opinions and Expressing Views The Internet has provided a new channel for the Chinese people to publicize opinions and express views. It has broken through the capacity limits of traditional media. As a result, the huge number of views of the common Chinese people can be publiciz
20、ed. The opinions that could be filtered out by traditional media due to capacity limits can now be publicized on the platform of the Internet. Today, Chinese Internet users post more than 3 million opinions every day through BBS, news comments and blogs. They discuss various topics and fully express
21、 their ideas and demands. Emerging Internet services such as blogs, microblogs, video sharing and social network services provide more convenient conditions for Chinese citizens to exchange views on the Internet. The Internet has substantially expanded the room for Chinese people to express their op
22、inions. The Internet has greatly reduced the threshold for the Chinese people to express their opinions, has increased the number of people publicizing opinions and cut the cost of expressing views. On traditional media, only opinions in line with political and commercial requirements of a few media
23、 and organizations can be published. The scarcity of media resources leads to the necessity of selecting and filtering opinions. But the Internet has changed all this. It breaks traditional medias privilege of information access. Expressing opinions is no longer unique to a few elites. Today, as lon
24、g as a Chinese netizen has a computer, a phone line or a cellphone with Internet access, he or she can publicly or anonymously express his or her ideas, opinions and views. Nearly everyone can easily express his or her views at an affordable price. Every Internet user is a subject who can independen
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