Cachet and Credibility

Beijing has always been big on "correct attitudes".

They've just squeezed the ideological belt a notch tighter with their bill to fine any media reporting on "sudden events" without prior authorization.

Say what? Advance permission to cover breaking news?

According to the draft law, newspapers, mags, Web sites et co would be fined up to $12,500 each time they run "unauthorized* info' about a 'sudden' event'.

As the International Herald Tribune acutely puts it,

"China may find that nothing gives a story quite the cachet and credibility that censorship does.

Billing a story as an "unauthorized sudden event" could become the Chinese equivalent of banned in Boston - a sure-fire way to draw even more attention to it."