Foreign wire services demand clarification

FOREIGN wire services last night demanded Beijing clarify how regulations on the 'controlled' dissemination of economic information would be implemented.

Reuters expressed concern over the plan to punish economic information providers if information released to mainland users contained anything forbidden by Chinese laws, or slandered or jeopardised the mainland's national interests.

A spokesman said: 'On the face of it, this has extremely serious editorial implications for Reuters as well as for many other organisations active in China.' The head of Bloomberg's Asian news service, David Butts, said he would seek clarification from Xinhua: 'It is difficult to determine if it means the distribution is going to be restricted or simply we need to have an approval, a licence or a kind of registration.' Bloomberg's sales manager overseeing the mainland network, Mark Dailey, said mainland businesses of most agencies would be hit if the registration and distribution fees were high as they would increase production costs.

The Asia-Pacific news editor of Agence France Presse, Richard Ingham, said the regulations were a logical extension of the Government's control of information.

The circular also raised alarm in Hong Kong. 'I am afraid this latest move will only send the signal that Chinese leaders still do not understand how the freedom of information underpins economic success,' said Democratic Party leader Martin Lee Chu-ming.

Journalists, mindful of the fate of Hong Kong reporter Xi Yang, who was jailed in 1994 for 12 years in China for reporting 'state secrets' - economic data - said the move would further increase the tendency towards self-censorship.