An Informed Citizenry?

Information is power. It is a scarce good in developing societies where those who control information tend to rule those who do not. In these authoritarian systems knowledge is rationed carefully. News about life beyond their borders is filtered to conform with regime images of the outside world. Media and culture serve as instruments for domestic mobilization and control in the first instance, and then for the provision of entertainment deemed suitable for mass consumption. Dissenting views are rarely permitted, and civil societies serve the state, rather than challenge it.

Do the above comments describe China today? We were recently reminded of the party-state’s remarkable ability to control the Chinese communication system during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. While 25,000 foreign journalists strove mightily to crack the censorship barrier and local activists sought to challenge Chinese Communist Party authorities, their efforts were muffled by a powerful control...