While most countries such as the U.S., Philippines and Australia give their media a certain degree of leeway in presenting the news, countries such as North Korea and China represent an entirely different media regulatory scenario. Instead of regulations related to upholding the accuracy of stories presented, the maintenance of journalistic integrity and respect for individual privacy; the media in the case of North Korea and China is almost entirely state-controlled. Stories that are either critical of the government, portray the government in a bad light or present topics that are considered controversial by government officials are almost entirely banned from being printed or published at all (Lim & Hyunjin, 2009). On the other hand, it must be noted that though North Korea and China share the same adherence to the strict control of information in order to prevent public unrest, in the case of China informal media has been gaining considerable traction in terms of its ability to present an “unedited” version of the news revealing the various problems found within China. Informal media takes the form of blogs, websites and a variety of online platforms where news is presented in a way that is more similar to the methods seen in western countries, namely unedited and presenting the facts for what they are. Unfortunately, the Chinese government has continued to crack down on such “unauthorized” methods of the news publication, however, due to the sheer breadth and depth of the internet, for everyone site or message board that is taken down dozens more rise up to take their place (East Asia Intel, 2011). The main conclusion that I draw from this is that so long as people are given the technology to communicate, no government-sponsored regulation, no matter how strict, can prevent “true unbiased media” from being delivered to those who truly want to know more about what is happening in their country and the world.
Reference
East Asia Intel. (2011). China military cracking down on Internet search terms related to nuke sub radiation leak. East-Asia-Intel Reports. p. 1.
Lim, J., & Hyunjin, S. (2009). Frame flow between government and the news media and its effects on the public: framing of North Korea. International Journal Of Public Opinion Research, 21(2), 204-223.