To what extent is self-censorship a kind of freedom? The case of China

Nowadays it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore that the majority of people are unaware about the reliability of what they read in the press and what they listen to the radio. In fact, it is not easy to recognize when news has been manipulated by journalists or if it is presented in an ambiguous way to convey an altered idea than the original case. The mechanism that leads to this uncertainty is called self-censorship, and is one of the techniques used by most newsrooms around the world to try to avoid measures and censorship by political authorities. Consequently, one of the greatest current discussions in legal and moral philosophy is how much we should believe in what we read or in what we are informed by media every day. However, there has been little discussion about the concept of self-censorship; Hence, the aim of this presentation is to fill part of this knowledge gap, through an analysis of the Chinese typical case of self-censorship. Firstly, in order to answer this

Nowadays it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore that the majority of people are unaware about the reliability of what they read in the press and what they listen to the radio. In fact, it is not easy to recognize when news has been manipulated by journalists or if it is presented in an ambiguous way to convey an altered idea than the original case. The mechanism that leads to this uncertainty is called self-censorship, and is one of the techniques used by most newsrooms around the world to try to avoid measures and censorship by political authorities. Consequently, one of the greatest current discussions in legal and moral philosophy is how much we should believe in what we read or in what we are informed by media every day. However, there has been little discussion about the concept of self-censorship; Hence, the aim of this presentation is to fill part of this knowledge gap, through an analysis of the Chinese typical case of self-censorship. Firstly, in order to answer this question, will be provided information about the background and will be defined the concept of self-censorship, pointing out the difference and the connection to censorship; Then, will be rated the current status of China self-censorship, and will be presented a survey to analyze the problem within the Chinese newsrooms. Finally, in order to form a judgment, will be summarized the result of the study about the conception and the aim of Chinese self-censorship.