Abstract
According to Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, every person should have the right to request freedom of expression. This article includes the right to freedom of opinion without intrusion and liberty to pursue, obtain, and convey ideas and resources through any media and irrespective of borders. According to China’s present Constitution, residents of the People’s Republic of China have the right to freedom of speech. On the other hand, Chinese journalists cannot express themselves freely, and press freedom has become a critical issue in modern China. On the other extreme, as per the Freedom House, Taiwanese media freedom is the greatest in Asia. The social and cultural factor has the most significant impact on journalists’ perceptions of media functions. The personality characteristics have virtually no effect by comparing the goodness-of-fit of a sequence of log-linear models.
Introduction
China has risen to become a worldwide powerhouse in the twenty-first century. The fast development of this country’s military, political, scientific, and technological capabilities drew international attention. China plays a vital role in global relations as one of the quickest emerging countries in economic development. However, many negative aspects have arisen due to the rapid growth, such as the current significant environmental degradation and the contentious topic of China’s human rights. Concerned about fundamental rights in China, Chris Smith, the American federal upper house, Congress, and the administration of China council chair of the general staff, was interviewed by Voice of America. In 2016, it discussed the human rights situation in China.
Research Problem
According to the preface, Taiwan ranks top in Asia on the World Press Freedom Index, while China has constantly remained in the bottom five. The progress of news and the fundamental human rights of all Chinese journalists are inextricably linked. Unfortunately, few studies have tried to observe the discrepancy in media freedom between China and Taiwan and the challenges that Chinese press freedom faces. Looking into the distinction is an intriguing subject because, while Taiwan and China have similar cultural backgrounds and different administrations, their levels of journalistic freedom are vastly different.
Research Objective
This thesis aims first, to provide a thorough grasp of the current state of press freedom in modern China and then to analyze press autonomy under various regimes. A variety of factors influences the degree of media independence in any country, such as the regime, religious beliefs, and personal social system. The release of the press is the result of a long-running fight and compromise between the media and government. As a result, it is fascinating to investigate the differences in media freedom among different administrations. It is difficult to say whether a rule is excellent or dreadful. Nonetheless, the gap in media freedom between two systems can be explored and used to develop remedies in the future, thereby advancing the nation to a better position.
Research Relevance
The topic is particularly timely given the current state of freedom in China, particularly liberty in the way media operates. As previously said, freedom of expression is a fundamental human right. This right assures that people have the freedom to accept information from any media, and hence this type of autonomy is strongly linked to human rights. To maintain social stability, the government regulates all public media. As a result, this argument is also pertinent to human rights. Free media and information access is a necessary step toward realizing people’s independence and achieving more significant development goals.
Limitations and Delimitations
A potential limitation is the media selection; in this case, the researcher selected three significant media sources in China and Taiwan. There is anticipation that this media selection could limit the number of outcomes, but given the time constraints, it appears appropriate. Furthermore, writing some of the specified scholarly articles in Chinese may have some minor differences while translating into English. The author carefully selected the most representative national press in both China and Taiwan to reduce the limitation. Because these media have a significant impact on the public, the media could reduce the restriction.
Previous Research
There is a large body of literature in the field of freedom of the press investigations, media freedom in China, and press freedom and human rights studies. This researcher built this thesis on a solid basis of current sources. Many international non-governmental organizations have published reports on free media. RSF is a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting and defending press and information freedom. Press releases, fact-finding studies, and monthly publications are all issued by RSF. It regularly releases mission reports on individual countries or regions or a specific issue. The CCP brought oppression to a new pinnacle, according to the RSF annual report from 2015. RSF stated that the Communist Party has complete control over China’s numerous media outlets. Their research paper gave reliable data on the state of media freedom.
Conclusion
The author contrasted news reports from Chinese and Taiwanese media in general. The goal is to contribute to the study of Chinese media freedom by using news stories as a lens that portrays the broad current occurrence of press freedom in China. Although the analysis results do not fully reflect the status of China’s entire media due to sample size limitations, the study can provide some proof that press freedom in China is severely restricted. Furthermore, historical origins and Chinese culture may restrain Chinese media freedom. Still, media freedom is a highly complex topic that various elements influence it with distinct analysis aspects.