Even in tightly controlled China, anyone can be a reporter

A very interesting piece from the Christian Science Monitor, on Molive, a site that lets ordinary people gather news with their camera cellphones, launched by Eric Zhang, a former staffer at the China Dailynews organization based in Beijing.

"The site, launched three weeks ago, lets people post photos they have taken to their own personal websites with small descriptions of the scenes. Editors comb the postings and put the best ones on Molive's home page. The site is young but already has more than 100 people posting on it from all around the country and more than 20,000 readers a day.

"There has to be a picture. No picture, no report," Mr. Zhang says. "There are all sorts of things. Sometimes accidents, sometimes just an interesting scene, sometimes just a beautiful woman."

But the potential for the site is greater. There are restrictions on it - no courts coverage and no murder or crime - but labor strikes, which technically don't exist in China, are allowed as a subject. And if there is a citizen uprising or disturbance? Zhang says he has not been given formal instructions, but he intends to allow people to post those items - though the site will not promote them to the front page.

The site, which like all Chinese media exists at the government's discretion, is being watched closely by China's leadership.

There are, of course, a lot of ways to read the creation of Molive. It might be seen as an aid for internal spying - a way for the government to keep tabs on people it sees as troublemakers. And some of the restrictions, like the one on courts coverage, show it is not exactly the home for free- wheeling reportage - though that's not really surprising.

There is also the question of what the site will look like in six months or a year, if it still exists at all. But the creation of Molive is significant because in it may also be a tacit acknowledgment by the Chinese government: Technology has reached the point where the control of information - even in a country as hard-line as China - is becoming difficult and perhaps impossible."

emily | 3:26 PM | Citizens as Camera Phone Reporters |
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