Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06BEIJING21330
2006-10-10 11:27:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Beijing
Cable title:  

OBJECTION! SCHOLARS, JOURNALISTS CRITICIZE NEW

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KPAO CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO4095
PP RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHBJ #1330/01 2831127
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 101127Z OCT 06 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9190
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 021330 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/10/2031
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO CH
SUBJECT: OBJECTION! SCHOLARS, JOURNALISTS CRITICIZE NEW
COURT SPOKESPERSON SYSTEM

REF: 05 BEIJING 17105

Classified By: Political Section Internal Unit Chief Susan A. Thornton.
Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 021330

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/10/2031
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO CH
SUBJECT: OBJECTION! SCHOLARS, JOURNALISTS CRITICIZE NEW
COURT SPOKESPERSON SYSTEM

REF: 05 BEIJING 17105

Classified By: Political Section Internal Unit Chief Susan A. Thornton.
Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) New rules imposing stricter controls on
dissemination of information about court cases has
touched off sharp debate in Chinese legal circles and
among journalists. The Supreme People's court has
introduced a new system of court spokespersons who
will be solely responsible for releasing news to the
press about cases. Judges or other court officials
who fall afoul of the restrictions will be subject to
punishment. The spokespersons, operating in close
cooperation with Propaganda authorities, will come
from the courts' General Offices and will have no
formal legal or media training. The Government
launched the initiative in part as an effort to
safeguard social stability by keeping a close hold on
details related to controversial cases that could
incite unrest, our contacts said. At the same time,
journalists told us they worry that the path to
gathering useful information for reporting about legal
issues just got more difficult, risking a slowdown in
judicial openness. End Summary.

A New System for Legal News
--------------


2. (C) The Xinhua News Agency reported on September
12 that a new system of court spokespersons would
henceforth be the only lawful mechanism for
disseminating information about legal cases in China.
The report said that according to the Supreme People's
Court, officials who break the rules and leak
information to the press would be subject to
disciplinary action. Contacts were unable to specify
enforcement procedures or the kinds of punishments
that might be meted out. According to Xinhua and
foreign media reports, the new rules ban the release
of news related to national secrets, business secrets
and personal information. In addition, any case
evaluations by official trial committees can not be
made public, nor can documents that pass between
upper- and lower-level courts. Finally, the
presidents of courts have full discretion to forbid
disclosure of any material.


Mouthpieces in Training
--------------


3. (C) In September, the SPC and the Propaganda
Department trained 35 new court spokespersons, our
media and legal contacts said. Most spokesperson
positions will be filled by high-ranking people
already in court offices, said Li Xuan, Vice Dean of
the Law School of the Central University of Finance
and Economics who also serves as the Secretary-General
of the Human Rights Committee of the All-China
Lawyers' Association. He specified that the SPC
itself now has two spokespersons. One is the Director
General of the SPC General Office; the other is the
Deputy Director General. The same setup will exist in
provincial courts, whose spokespersons will come from
their General Offices as well. Central and provincial
Propaganda Departments will provide support staff to
courts' media affairs offices, drafting statements and
scripting responses to possible press questions. Each
court now has an adjudication committee that makes
decisions about what kind of information to publicize
when important cases arise. The President of the
court, to whom spokespersons report, will have
ultimate say, Li related.

Scholars Critical
--------------


4. (C) That the spokespersons will have no media or
legal background is causing consternation among legal
scholars, Li acknowledged. While some observers
contend that insulating judges from media pressure
will enhance the integrity of judicial decisionmaking,
Li said, others complain that the spokespersons will
have very little freedom to share useful information
about cases of interest. Against this backdrop, Li
criticized the granting of authority to court
officials to decide what kind of information should
and should not be publicized, saying it has no basis

BEIJING 00021330 002 OF 002


in law. Li concluded that if the system is being
introduced to limit public access to information, then
it constitutes a step backward for legal transparency.
Under the new rules, the media has lost a channel to
get the inside scoop about the system's flaws. As
such, it will be harder press for further reforms, Li
said.

A Reporting Hurdle
--------------


5. (C) Journalists who cover legal issues are unhappy
about the new rules, said Zhang Shensi (protect),a
reporter for the state-run Legal Daily newspaper. The
Legal Daily ran a straightforward article describing
the spokesperson system on September 13. Zhang said
that given her paper's status as a Party mouthpiece,
finding fault in print with Supreme People's Court
initiatives such as this one would earn unwelcome
attention from the Propaganda Department.
Nonetheless, she related that reporters she has spoken
with at the Legal Daily and elsewhere are downbeat
about the restrictions. They expect the spokespersons
will likely only speak to them in the context of press
conferences. There will probably be little leeway to
pick up the phone and ask them to discuss individual
cases. "The path to gathering useful information for
reporting about legal issues just got more difficult,"
Zhang said.

Judges Split
--------------


6. (C) Judges are divided about the new rules, Zhang
remarked. Some on the bench are frustrated because
they have good relationships with journalists who
cover the legal beat. Both groups benefit from
discussion of hot legal issues, Zhang argued. If the
new rules are strictly enforced, these relationships
will end. But other judges welcome the initiative
because they are inundated with press inquiries, which
are increasing in the face of rising public interest
in legal cases. In addition, some judges see the
rules as creating a welcome buffer zone that will
allow them to make judgments without the fear that
publicity about case details will cause a public
outcry.

It's About Social Stability
--------------


7. (C) Vice Dean Li separately made a similar point,
surmising that stability concerns are at the heart of
the new spokesperson system. Several controversial
cases have galvanized popular interest and resulted in
protests or unrest, he said. For example, in 2005,
media stories about a migrant worker convicted of
murder and sentenced to death in Ningxia Province in
2005 riled migrant communities around the country who
felt the verdict was overly harsh (reftel). (Note:
The Propaganda Department ultimately banned reporting
on the case. End note.) Heated appeals in the press
and from netizens on other cases in the past have
forced the SPC to make hasty decisions that were too
sensitive for provincial courts to handle, Li said.


8. (C) For the working press, however, such arguments
ring hollow, said Zhou Qing'an (protect),a free lance
writer and regular contributor to The Beijing News.
The problem is not media influence on the court
system, he contended, arguing that the press has no
authority to adjudicate cases or impose legal
decisions. Imperfections in the way the media covers
legal issues are less important to address than flaws
in the legal system itself, Zhou maintained.
Insulating judges from the pressure of media attention
is a laudable goal, he allowed. At the same time, the
new system "needs to give the press an avenue for
getting real information," Zhou concluded. "That is
not going to happen with spokespersons system that has
been set up basically to keep information from the
press."
SEDNEY