For those interested, and despite the fact I am getting rather tired of bringing that back in the conversation, here is what the Congressional-Executive Commission on China - 2014 ANNUAL REPORT has to say under the section Freedom of expression in Macau (p.189) for 2014: The Commission observed continued reports of self-censorship by journalists and concern over government control of broadcast media (62). Although the government pledged to liberalize the telecommunications market, government-owned Teledifusão de Macau (TDM) retained a monopoly on broadcast television, while the Macau government and TDM together own 95 percent of the shares in Macau’s only cable television provider, Macau Cable TV (63). Two cases this year raised concerns regarding freedom of expression in Macau after prominent university professors were dismissed. The rector of the University of Saint Joseph, a private Catholic school, said that professor Eric Sautede’s contract was not renewed due to Sautede’s pro-democracy political commentary (64). Sautede claimed that pressure from a Macau government education agency contributed in part to his firing (65). In August 2014, the University of Macau (UM) fired professor Bill Chou Kwok-ping, who also serves as vice president of the pro-democratic New Macau Association (66). Although UM claimed that Chou had ‘‘impos[ed] his political beliefs on students,’’ (67) Chou alleged that the university fired him due to his ‘‘political activism.’’ (68). USJ is a bit more than a Catholic School, it is the only Catholic university on Chinese soil, with the diocese of Macao as its title holder and the Catholic University of Portugal putting its name at the bottom of the diplomas. Also, I was fired (my contract was indefinite) whereas Bill Chou was not renewed. The whole report is of course worth reading, although the point is not to agree with everything it states. For the press in Macao, I guess it would have been important to stress that self-censorship does not apply to all (although I am always amazed by the lack of real investigative journalism here, and trust me, this is not because of lack of topic or know-how...) and also to stress the innovative role played by social media and new Chinese media outlets like All About Macau (論盡媒體, lunjin meiti, aamacau/). Keep reading and looking for alternative sources of information.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 01:45:06 +0000
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