Russia and China are Putin-Xi Suppression on “Free” Media

The effects of technology on ordinary people's access to information in China and Russia.

      Media censorship is a serious concern that threatens the necessity for a free and unbiased media that acts as a watchtower over governments, an essential part to preserving people’s rights and establishing new rights around the world. The ideal for a free press is very much threatened in China and Russia as technology increases, mainly because of government fears that subjects may access new information that may undermine authority. Both Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have been ardent supporters of government crackdown on media and have launched campaigns to silence media that opposes them. As technology use has increased in both countries, so has state controlled media. Both countries have hushed political adversaries by fear tactics and slowing the release of their information, even to the extent of throwing them in prison.
    Among the generation of post Soviet Union Russians, support for Putin is as high as 88%(*1), despite his long “reign” and ultimate desire for power and difficulty in everyday life. In Russia, among many young people (coined the “Putin Generation”) their is the sentiment of wanting to achieve more than what they currently have or the desire for success. This often conflicts with older generations that have lived under the Soviet Union for almost all, if not all, of their adult lives. The values of the generations that grew up during the time of the Soviet Union are still very relevant and impact many young people in modern Russia. An example of the increase in state run media is after the protests of the 2012 election in which Putin was able to retain another term. This victory was heavily protested when many polling station observers caught video proof of ballots being stuffed for Putin. Tens of thousands, many young people, turned to the streets to protest the victory of Putin who they viewed as winning unfairly. This was something unseen in Russia for decades and Putin responded by jailing many of the protestors and increasing his attacks on “liberals who advocated for freedom and democracy...{and labeled them as} traitors” (Ioffe, pg. 100). By reacting in a belligerent way to demands for fair elections and further democratization, Putin established his desire to stay in power. Putin by using fear tactics in arresting protesters established fear amongst protesters and further instilled the older generation's lack of desire in political engagement into younger generations. This coincides with the lack of information that Russian citizens have access to and this keeps power at the hand of Putin’s government.
     Like what is seen in Putin’s Russia, Xi Jinping’s China has seen very similar effects of technologies introduction into China. One of the most contradictory aspects of media censorship in China is the fact that the Chinese constitution gives citizens the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of press. The excuse the government gives is that media contradictory to the goals of the government is harmful to the government’s interests and even traitorous. Xi Jinping, since rising to power has endorsed an effort to crack down on media. Xi's policy towards media enforcement has been described in state run media as "essential to political stability." The Chinese government forces foreign companies like Google to succumb to their standards for media or risk being blocked by firewalls. The government of China has blocked news stories from entering the country and has jailed journalists for contradicting the government’s regulations on media. A prominent example of this is the Chinese journalist Liu Xiaobo who was imprisoned for calling for democratic reforms to the government. He later received eleven years in prison but was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work. He was not permitted to leave the country to receive his award and news of the achievement was blocked in Chinese media. Also the government explicitly censors information related to events in which it determines that the people should not know, including historical events such as Tiananmen Square.
     All of these effects of lack of access to objective information in Russia and China allow power to be in the hands of existing governments despite concerns of citizens and outsiders. The media crackdown by both Putin and Xi demonstrates the threat of people lacking information and the ability to make informed decisions.

Works Cited
Ioffe, Julia, and Gerd Ludwig. “The Putin Generation.” National Geographic, vol. 230, no. 6, Dec. 2016, pp. 76-101.
Fallows, James. "CHINA’s GREAT LEAP BACKWARD. (Cover Story)." Atlantic, vol. 318, no. 5, Dec.       2016, p. 58. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=119211199.
Xu, Beina. "Media Censorship in China." Edited by Eleana Albert. Council on
     Foreign Relations.