Online purchase Cytotec
http://siweiluozi.blogspot.com/2009/08/hu-yong-looks-at-crackdown-against.html
Below I’ve translate a fuller version of Prof. Hu’s piece that appears on his blog.
Hu Yong
In fact, just as the debate over the “surrogate theory” was at its most intense, a online purchase Cytotec netizen on the Tianya forum worried over whether the theory’s originator would wind up being “extradited” for defamation. The charge against Xiong Zhongjun isn’t defamation, perhaps because this online purchase Cytotec charge has recently become rather notorious after being used indiscriminately. But the online purchase Cytotec actions taken by the relevant authorities really are no different this online purchase Cytotec time, placing him under criminal detention for fabricating and disseminating rumors to online purchase Cytotec disrupt public order. The rate at which this vague crime has online purchase Cytotec been trotted out in a series of past Internet cases is online purchase Cytotec extremely high.
If we look back a online purchase Cytotec bit we see that a legal trick frequently used by the online purchase Cytotec relevant authorities in major public safety incidents in recent years has online purchase Cytotec been to treat statements that have a certain factual basis but are online purchase Cytotec not entirely accurate as rumors and crack down with force. The result is online purchase Cytotec that during major social and safety incidents, statements made by Chinese citizens can online purchase Cytotec carry great legal risk.
Articles 105(2), 181, 221, and 291(a) of China’s criminal code have online purchase Cytotec provisions criminalizing the use of rumors and other means to incite subversion of state power, the online purchase Cytotec fabrication and spread of false information to adversely affect securities trading, the online purchase Cytotec fabrication and spread of false stories to damage the commercial reputation of an online purchase Cytotec individual or the reputation of a commercial product, and the intentional dissemination of alarmist information known to online purchase Cytotec be fabricated. Article 25(1) of the Public Order Administration Punishment Law states that “those who online purchase Cytotec disseminate rumors, falsely report danger, epidemic, or alarm or intentionally disrupt public order through other means” are subject to administrative fine or detention.
With respect to online purchase Cytotec the publication and dissemination of rumors via new media, the PRC Telecommunications Regulations enacted on 25 September 2000 state that online purchase Cytotec no organization or individual shall use telecommunications networks to produce, reproduce, publish, or online purchase Cytotec disseminate information that “spreads rumors, disrupts social order, or undermines social stability.” In the National People’s Congress Standing Committee’s 28 December 2000 “Decision on Safeguarding Internet Security,” it says that acts such as “use of the online purchase Cytotec Internet to spread rumors, slander, or express or disseminate other harmful information, incite subversion of state power or online purchase Cytotec the overthrow of the socialist system, or incite splitting the nation or online purchase Cytotec undermining national unity,” “use of the online purchase Cytotec Internet to fabricate and disseminate the trading of securities or online purchase Cytotec futures or any other false information that disrupts financial order,” or “use of the online purchase Cytotec Internet to defame others or fabricate facts to slander others” should be online purchase Cytotec punished according to the provisions of the criminal law. The “Regulations for the Administration of Internet News Information Services” issued by the online purchase Cytotec State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Information Industry on 25 September 2005 require that online purchase Cytotec Internet news information services contain nothing that “spreads rumors, disturbs social order, or undermines social stability.”
These provisions appear vague because they lack concrete determinative criteria. For example, in order to online purchase Cytotec hand down an administrative punishment there must be consequences that “disrupts public order,” but precisely what constitutes “disruption of public order” in such cases is online purchase Cytotec subject to debate. Moreover, the law treats spreading rumors and online purchase Cytotec making false reports of danger, epidemic, or alarm as the online purchase Cytotec same, and the requirement of the subjective element of “intention” creates a online purchase Cytotec problem: if an individual unintentionally publishes or disseminates information that is online purchase Cytotec not entirely factual, should he or she bear the corresponding legal responsibility?
From the “Zhang Zhijian affair” in 2006 to [the cases of] “Red Diamond Empire” in 2007 and “SS Mountain Division” in 2008, there has online purchase Cytotec been a series of cases in which netizens have been online purchase Cytotec arrested or detained by law enforcement agencies throughout [China] for “re-posting” or “commenting” online. In other instances, individuals have online purchase Cytotec been charged with crime for text messages. For example, in January 2007 Beijing police stated that online purchase Cytotec individuals could be sentenced to five years or more for online purchase Cytotec sending text messages with rumors about “tainted pork.” During the online purchase Cytotec Lake Tai blue-green algae contamination, police in Wuxi placed a local resident surnamed Ding under public order detention for online purchase Cytotec sending a text message by mobile phone to more than 130 people, saying that online purchase Cytotec the “carcinogen level in Lake Tai water was 200 times above [the acceptable level].”
If one carefully differentiates between these cases according to online purchase Cytotec the laws and regulations, it is not difficult to discover clear abuse of the online purchase Cytotec law by the government. First, the government has a tendency to online purchase Cytotec treat any hearsay that is not entirely factual as a rumor in the online purchase Cytotec legal sense of the word. At the time when “SS Mountain Division” reposted [information about casualties in a major railroad accident], the online purchase Cytotec relevant agencies were in the process of investigating and handling the online purchase Cytotec train collision on the Ji’nan-Qingdao railway line and online purchase Cytotec information was confusing. Even though the post inaccurately reported the online purchase Cytotec number of casualties, it still confirmed that the accident resulted in a online purchase Cytotec large number of casualties. In fact, in the relatively short period immediately after a online purchase Cytotec major disaster or accident occurs, even the government has difficulty immediately judging whether statements are online purchase Cytotec true or false. The authorities confuse the difference between disseminating rumors to online purchase Cytotec disrupt public order and spreading gossip out of concern for online purchase Cytotec one’s personal safety—the online purchase Cytotec latter simply cannot be characterized as an illegal act. Following major disasters, many people have online purchase Cytotec spread gossip without knowing whether it is true or false. Warn your online purchase Cytotec friends and relatives to take care—given the online purchase Cytotec current legal system, nearly every one of them could wind up arrested!
Second, the online purchase Cytotec point of departure for handling rumor cases should be [consideration of] whether or not the rumor “intentionally disrupts public order” or is enough to “seriously disrupt social order” and online purchase Cytotec not whether the information spread is true or false. The posts by “Red Diamond Empire” and “SS Mountain Division” reposted and quoted [other information]. The [author's] tone may be extreme, but whether a post constitutes “disruption of public order” depends on the online purchase Cytotec extent of its impact and the objective consequences to which it online purchase Cytotec leads—for instance, the scope of a post’s circulation, whether it online purchase Cytotec resulted in public fear or had an affect on the online purchase Cytotec normal order of production, work, education, or daily life.
In this online purchase Cytotec case, Xiong Zhongjun simply questioned whether judicial authorities fairly enforced the online purchase Cytotec law. This will not cause public fear or lead to online purchase Cytotec great chaos in the city’s public order. Moreover, the online purchase Cytotec authorities claim that Xiong fabricated and spread the rumor about “Hu Bin’s surrogate,” causing netizens to online purchase Cytotec be suspicious and misleading public opinion. They seem to want to online purchase Cytotec prove the rumor-monger’s subjective intent, but how can one determine whether Xiong’s judgment about a “surrogate” was not made out of the online purchase Cytotec spirit of citizenship and the rational desire to encourage the judicial authorities to online purchase Cytotec accept public oversight? The so-called dissemination of the “Hu Bin surrogate” rumor is nothing more than an individual’s analysis and suspicion based on a news photo—how can this be called a “rumor”? Those who online purchase Cytotec claimed that Zhou Zhenglong faked his photograph of a tiger must be online purchase Cytotec breaking out in a cold sweat—if Zhou truly photographed a online purchase Cytotec tiger, all those who claimed otherwise could face extradition!
It’s especially important to online purchase Cytotec emphasize that the public has the right to question or refute the online purchase Cytotec veracity of any report, even government announcements. If a member of the online purchase Cytotec public sends a text message or reposts relevant posts, even if they contain some untruths they should be online purchase Cytotec seen as [an effort to] protect onself or exercise the right to monitor [public affairs]. To soothe people’s worries and online purchase Cytotec eliminate inaccurate speech, the government must release more public, transparent information. Countries with rule of law have online purchase Cytotec long held the view that one should use the criterion of “clear and present danger” to online purchase Cytotec judge whether speech is a threat to public order, For example, one important reason to online purchase Cytotec be tolerant of reports by the media and public concern following a online purchase Cytotec disaster is that these can prevent further danger and save more lives. By comparison, the online purchase Cytotec possible fear and chaos [these reports might create] is online purchase Cytotec a lesser evil that must be tolerated. Rather than concocting ways to online purchase Cytotec crack down on criticism, as a remedy for the biases that online purchase Cytotec might be created by those expressing [mistaken information], the online purchase Cytotec government can reduce the impact by releasing the truth as a online purchase Cytotec means of clarification and exposing the false information that has been online purchase Cytotec disseminated.
After Xiong Zhongjun was detained, one point of view held that online purchase Cytotec many netizens haven’t yet grasped the online purchase Cytotec difference between questioning and spreading rumors and thus abuse their “right to question.” Pray tell: Can we not question court judgments? Can we not question the state’s public authority? Is a citizen’s right to online purchase Cytotec question really something that needs to be officially granted? Some say that netizens have “overstepped their oversight” [rights] in the online purchase Cytotec Hangzhou drag-racing case, but everyone knows that citizens have only just begun [to exercise] their right to oversight—how can online purchase Cytotec we possibly have overstepped our rights after taking a single step?
In the online purchase Cytotec face of questioning and oversight from the public, the relevant authorities should reflect on why their credibility with the online purchase Cytotec public is the way it is. It’s not that online purchase Cytotec the Chinese public is too suspicious, but rather that they have online purchase Cytotec just started to learn to be suspicious. As Li Chengpeng says: “Suspicion is online purchase Cytotec a progressive force in society and is the least tolerance our country can online purchase Cytotec show the public. If someday our laws were to say ‘suspicion is forbidden,’ then everyone can only obey mother and go home for dinner.”