a.

Comment on the legal and regulatory environment in China and its implications for
the Chinese media. In light of the restrictions imposed by the Chinese government on
Internet access, how do you think the media industry is affected?

U.S.-based Google, the leading internet search engine in the world, started providing its
services to China in 2000. In 2003, it became leading search engine in China as well. And
history was never repeated thereafter.

The Media of the People's Republic of China (alternatively Media of China, Chinese
Media) consists primarily of television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. Since 2000, the
Internet has also emerged as an important communications medium which is under the
supervision of Chinese republic.

Legal and regulatory environment for Internet access & its impact on Media

Some forbidden searches in China are

The government in China remains firmly in charge of market. The governments
objective is to maintain control of content and, by extension, all forms of media; print,
broadcast and Internet. Consequently, online media tends to get the most attention due to the
fact it is newer and harder to control.
Media controls were most relaxed during the 1980s but got tightened in the aftermath
of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests (5000 civilians fighting for freedom of press and
ending communist party were killed by army tanks).
Growing influence of the Internet and its potential to encourage dissent led to heavier
regulations. Reporters without Borders consistently rank China very poorly on media
freedoms in their annual releases of the Press Freedom Index. In 2010, China ranked 168 out
of 178 nations. Freedom House issued a report in 2006 claiming that the Internet is still
closely monitored by the state, with access to websites and publications critical of the
government being restricted, as well as foreign satellite television and radio broadcasts being
censored.

The Great Firewall of China
Since the beginning of 1996, the State has suspended all new applications from Internet
service providers to put all existing Internet services under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of
Posts and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Electronics Industry, and the State
Education Commission; and to establish firewalls, limit the contents of home pages, and
block access to certain Internet sites through routing filters. Much of the Internet access in
China is subjugate to the so-called "Great Firewall of China", which blacklists certain
websites and even blocks chat sessions.

There are logistical problems with a firewall over such a large network, and in most
instances its effects can be negated with a simple proxy. Government officials are worried
that, as the number of Chinese homes with telephone lines grows from the present level of
less than 4%, the State will become totally unable to monitor Internet access at residences.

In China, freedom of assembly and association is limited, freedom of speech is limited,
and theres widespread censorship with heavy government involvement in media.

b. On Google agreeing to censor its search content, Reporters without Borders
commented, Googles statements about respecting online privacy are the height of
hypocrisy in view of its strategy in China. However, Googles Director of Research
was of the view, Whats important to users is access to information, were giving
them that, and we think thats the most important. Do you think Google was right in
taking this step? Justify your answer.

Dealing with China was a long time battle of only losing and thats why
Google at last in 2010 closed its China-based search service google.com.cn and begun
redirecting web searchers to an uncensored portal in Hong Kong



Google censoring its search content

Google had two options to target ever growing internet market in China, which is second
largest in the world after US.
It could keep its servers locally and censors its contents or it keeps servers away and
contents go through the great firewall of China.

Arrests v/s Hosting Servers: Yahoo and Google
Fines and short arrests are becoming an optional punishment to whoever expresses
undesirable information through the different Internet formats, as this is seen as a risk to
social stability.
In 2001, some Chinese activists were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for
using a Yahoo email account to post anonymous writing to an Internet mailing list.
Because of this even Google did not want to host any of its servers in China but due to
heavy firewalls making it slow and redirecting to less relevant Chinese websites was
irritating Google lovers in China. So Google decided to host its server in China and filter the
contents as per Chines regulations. While omitting the result it would notify users. Prior to
this Google cashed pages would still be available as they would lay on US servers. With
censoring Chinese were getting less information but at it was better than getting no
information as Google believed.

Market Shares: tell the failure story

In 2002, new filtering system based on keywords was introduced by Chinese government
that blocked the word google itself. This was a temporary issue.

In 2003, Google was leading internet service provider in
China but due to firewall issues by 2004 a Chinese search
engine Baidu started gaining market share. Google was 7
times slower than Chinese search engine Baidu.
Some other issues were
Google images were not available.
Google News in English was blocked and users were forcefully switched to
censored Chinese news.
It was unreachable 10% of the times due to extensive filtering by ISP- Internet
service providers in China.
Filtered out content would be inconsistent with information sought.

In 2005, despite not liking the idea, Google thought of
working locally in Chinese market and censoring its contents so that
they dont have to go through firewalls and delay the search results.
This censorship was highly criticized and Google could never neat
Baidu again, despite being liked by more people.

Finally due to Chinese cyber-attacks in 2010, Goggle had to
say good bye to Chinese market.
Google Baidu
2003 34.8% 2.5%
2005 30.0% 46.0%
2010 78.0% 10.0%