Promoting Media Freedom and Ethics

Promoting Legal reform for the protection of media in China

In 2011 GBCC started work on an EU and FCO-funded project to strengthen the capacity and role of media legal advisers in the protection of the rights of journalists.

Project activities will include fora in China to review existing media legislation, interpretation and government policy in both Europe and China, and to provide a comparative perspective on how the media operate in these respective locations. In addition, partners will work to promote specific judicial reform within the newly-passed civil law provisions on tort.

The project partners are:
. Peking University's Centre for Reform Theory and Practice;
. Renmin University's Centre for Civil and Commercial Jurisprudence;
. Oxford University's Programme in Comparative Media Policy and Law, Oxford University.

Peking University has set up a dedicated website for the project. It is in its early stages at the moment. 
www.crtp.pku.edu.cn/center.asp 

January-August 2011
A delegation of five academics and two judges, led by project partners Peking University and Renmin University participated in seminars and meetings in London and Oxford from 1–7 May 2011. The visit was an opportunity for project partners to meet for the first time to plan forthcoming activities and to share knowledge on recent developments in China and the EU.

In London, Lord Lester hosted a roundtable seminar at the House of Lords on defamation in the UK and Europe. Michelle Dyson, Head of Legal Policy, Ministry of Justice described the process of legislating, emphasising the consultation process and the need to balance interests citing the new draft defamation bill by example. Tracey Brown, Managing Director, Sense about Science, described the importance of freedom of expression to the accuracy of scientific news reports, and the risks of misreporting in events such as the recent earthquake in Japan. The delegation also met with Article 19 to learn more about their work. 

In Oxford, Professor Timothy Endicott, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Oxford University, welcomed the delegation. PCMLP and GBCC then hosted a workshop with sessions on Liberal Democratic Media Law; media law and challenges to regulating the media in the EU and China; and Press in a changing society. 

September-December 2011
In September the first of six fora aimed at engaging opinion formers, policy makers and academics on media regulation in the took place at Peking University. Topics covered a broad range of topics from convergence issues, to the UK government response to the use of social media in the London riots.

Renmin University and GBCC also organized a legislative experience-sharing workshop  which focused on media tort law and how judges should interpret the new tort law passed in China in December 2009 with respect to media cases. 

Renmin University have drafted a judicial manual to be used to train judges on interpretation of the new tort law. EU experts were consulted and provided feedback, which was incorporated into a second draft. The manual will be used to guide judges during training planned for 2012.

Renmin University has also drafted a draft “Personality Law” which relates to rights issues such as the use of images, the use of names and rights to privacy. This law is on the legislation agenda of China’s National People’s Congress for discussion in the near future. Issues surrounding the draft law as it relates to the freedom of expression were discussed at a seminar that took place in Beijing in December 2011.  UK experts Mr Justice Eady and Hugh Tomlinson QC delivered key note speeches at that seminar.   

A workshop on codes of conduct and self regulation with regard to social media and new media users was held by Peking University in Beijing on 11^th December to discuss Codes of Conduct for New Media in the Digital Age.  Chinese experts exchanged views with EU experts on privacy, defamation and regulation. On the EU side, Perry Keller, Kings College London and Josep M. Carbonell, Dean of Blanquerna School of Communications, Barcelona contributed papers on ‘Re-thinking the Media in the Internet Era’ and ‘Social Media and website liability: the EU approach’. The aim of this workshop was to exchange opinions on the Chinese project team to draft recommendations on codes of conduct for Chinese social media sites such as Weibo.

2012
In early 2012, three academic researchers from China will each spend six weeks at the University of Oxford. Research will focus on EU-China media law and policy and will feed into a joint research publication to be produced by the end of this three year project. Collaboration on the project website, which was launched in China in September, will also be stepped up - www.crtp.pku.edu.cn/center.asp.

This project is generously funded by the European Commission, and the British Embassy in Beijing.