On Chinese Journalistic Legislation

Chinese legislation on media is a tough process, and this article aims at making an overall and systematic study on the subject. Starting with a review on the history of domestic journalistic legislation, the article makes an analysis on the actual function of the current legal system related to journalistic practice. Having affirmed its positive impacts, the author points out that the current legal system fails to adjust, efficiently or forcefully, the relations between journalism and the state, the society, as well as the public, which is cause by some inner limitations like its low legal rank, ambiguous legal executors, faint applicability, unfair regulations on rights and obligations, and so forth. Then the article decides that a special law on journalism is badly needed in China, which goes from the following three aspects: to construct socialistic democracy, to dispel the pressure brought by WTO regulations and international treaties, to safeguard the journalists'legal rights and promote the media's social functions. As a rational summery to the historical journalistic legislation in China, the article, for the first time, probes into the drafts of the press law in the past, discussing their aspiring sides and shortcomings and, their use for further reference. Based on that, the article sheds light on the obstacles of Chinese journalistic legislation, includes such elements as the approaches to realize the freedom of press, the possibility of natural person's originating journalistic institution(s), the contradictions between the Party's ruling over media versus the ruling by law. At last, from the angle of monomial legislation, the article discusses some domestic legislation related, directly or indirectly, to the protection over "supervision by public opinion"or the right to know, believing that it is a make-up behavior under the condition that a special press law is absent, and that it will serve as valuable references for our further efforts and a bridge from the status quo to the final perfect journalistic legal system.