Netizens to Reporters Without Borders: Did You Forget Weibo?

Who’s been naughty, and who’s been nice? Reporters Without Borders (RWB) has once again released its World Press Freedom Index, which ranks the world’s countries in order of the freedom afforded their journalists in the previous year. As usual, more attention is being paid to who’s been naughty. Mainland China fell three spots to #174 out of 179 countries. Meanwhile, Taiwan rose three spots to #45, while Hong Kong plunged 20 spots to #54.

Many netizens questioned China’s place in the rankings because they felt Weibo, China’s Twitter, provides a relatively free forum. One wrote, “[It seems] Weibo has ruined the Ministry of Propaganda’s efforts.” Another netizen tweeted, “[The ranking] is basically accurate; good thing we have the Internet (even with the firewall).” Another demanded, “China should have moved up! Because netizens know so much more than they used to.”

While a majority felt the rankings were accurate, they appeared to reserve much of their scorn for China’s tightly managed traditional media, and not the Internet. One netizen resorted to sarcasm: “The Ministry of Propaganda has been working for years [on censorship]. After all its diligent hard work, the Celestial Dynasty is not ranked last? How is this [expletive] fair?”

In fact, the index is formed by compiling reporter surveys, which do ask about the Internet. In its 2011 report on the index, RWB writes that “China, which has more journalists, bloggers and cyber-dissidents in prison than any other country, stepped up its censorship and propaganda in 2011 and tightened its control of the Internet, particularly the blogosphere.”

If censorship in China is tightening, why did so many netizens react to this latest news with a “big laugh” or an (electronic) shrug?  One possible explanation: While the Chinese government has increased its censorship, Weibo’s explosive growth has caused the overall volume of online dialogue to increase too, perhaps at a faster clip. Weibo users are also less easily shocked by the Chinese government’s meddling with press freedom than are Western observers. One jaded netizen wrote, “[Only] 35 reporters have been [arrested], and China’s ranked [among the worst]. This shows most areas of the world are relatively safe.”  Indeed, some netizens felt the importance of free speech was a “myth,” less important than “being able to eat and pass the days safely” and ultimately worthy only of “crocodile tears.”

Many netizens seemed more interested in “poor Hong Kong’s” slide, a likely result of increased pressure from the mainland. “Hong Kong is getting closer to the motherland,” one commenter wrote. Another added that China is “dragging Hong Kong’s [ranking] down.”

Perhaps the best indicator of Weibo’s relative freedom was the fact that, while some questioned RWB’s motives and called the organization’s members “Western dogs,” a greater number bemoaned the “parrots” in the Chinese media and (in coded language of course) called President Hu a “leftist,” or Communist hard-liner.

An emblematic exchange occurred in response to well-known real-estate tycoon Ren Zhiqiang‘s assertion that the index was “accurate.” An anonymous netizen wrote, “Have you descended into anti-Communism? This ‘Reporters Without Borders’ has always been pro-Tibet independence, pro-Xinjiang independence, pro-Taiwan independence…an illegal organization.” Such a charge would have been serious business ten years ago. Ren’s response, circa 2012? None. He was already too busy tweeting about other things.