A new reform of a state secrets law enacted by the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (China's legislative body) late April and will go into full effect on October 1st, puts greater pressure on media companies to protect state secrets and to cooperate with authorities in case there is a violation of the law, CPJ reported yesterday.

These reforms came as no surprise from a government that restricts its population's freedom of expression and is in full control of media outlets, censoring websites, imprisoning journalists, and even hacking into their email accounts.
But what is most worrisome about this particular law is that it does not define what exactly constitutes a "state secret" to Chinese authorities. CPJ believes the measure may be used as an excuse to punish journalists who publish any information that the government finds unwelcome. The law may also be used as a convenient cover for government officials who do not wish to disclose information on the grounds of 'state secrets.'

Indeed, the reform seems to only formalize practices the Chinese government currently engages in. CPJ cites the case of freelancer Shi Tao who in 2004 was given a 10-year prison sentence for leaking secrets abroad after Yahoo's collaboration with Chinese authorities identified him as the writer of an email detailing the Chinese propaganda department's instructions.

In fact, not only Chinese journalists are subjected to both espionage and censorship. Back in April, CPJ notes that Andrew Jacobs, a reporter for the New York Times in Beijing, wrote about how he had been hacked, along several other foreign journalists. Since many of the attacks, he explained, had originated in Chinese computers, many concluded it may have been the work of government agents.

In March, tech giant Google officially removed its search site from Chinese servers in a bold move after the search engine suffered an attack on their interface that was traced back to Chinese mainland. The search engine had been subjected to much censorship by Chinese authorities.

This additional reform to an already repressive law attests to the blatant lack of press freedom in China. In 2009, Reporters without Borders ranked China a low 168 out of 175 countries in its annual press freedom rank. China is joined at the bottom of the list among other severe press freedom offenders, such as North Korea, Iran, and Burma.

Sources: CPJ, NYT, Reporters without Borders, WAN-IFRA