The Review 2009

36 The Review 2009 • Research Dr Anne Cheung 37 The Review 2009 • Research China, the Internet and Freedom of Expression When Dr Anne Cheung, Associate Professor in the Department of Law, took on the task of investigating freedom of expression on the Internet in China for an international project, she was not optimistic of the outcome. In a one-party state where the media has generally faced tight restrictions, she expected a controlled online environment where severe self- censorship would be the norm. That is far from what she found. Dr Cheung has been tracking about 40 judges’ blogs and found they use these forums to advocate reforms and express opinions on a wide range of subjects, including their own cases, cases handled by other judges, politics, corruption and other social phenomena. “Although the Chinese government is trying to censor the Internet, comparatively speaking people still enjoy a lot of freedom on the Internet. At least we’ve seen judges to be quite open and critical,” she said. “Despite setbacks and government controls, overall the trend in China is moving towards more openness” Dr Cheung and her team began tracking the blogs in 2007 and found enough information to map where the judges were based, the level of court they dealt with and their gender. They are now analysing the topics discussed and the nature of the judges’ opinions. “The judges are quite clear and outspoken in their views, whereas we thought they would use more indirect forms of expression. There are certain things they won’t touch – they won’t criticise the Communist Party – but they still criticise phenomena like corruption. To a certain extent they are quite daring, although many don’t use their real names,” she said. “This is very different from common law. The judges in China see themselves as advocates, although they know the boundaries.” Dr Cheung is also tracking the blogs of dissident lawyers, who as expected are also outspoken about cases and reforms. They play a cat-and-mouse game with authorities, who shut down the blogs only for them to re-appear under a different name. “Despite setbacks and government controls, overall the trend in China is moving towards more openness,” she said. Her study is being conducted for the OpenNet Initiative, which was launched by Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and Toronto universities to gauge censorship and surveillance on the Internet around the world. The results will be published in a book in 2010 detailing Internet freedom in different countries. They will also be used to monitor on-going Internet freedom in China.