Blogs new public media

Blogs are becoming an increasingly popular means for Chinese netizens to report about events in their region. As the population of Chinese netizens increases, their blogs are emerging as a new form of public media, says Wang Zhongtuo, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

By the end of last June, China had 162 million netizens. The figure was up 39 million compared to the same period in 2006.

China's internet surfing population is the world's second largest, right after the US with its 211 million netizens.

Blogs provide a new channel for people to publish their opinions anonymously on the internet.

In China, people have administrative power over their blogs to a certain extent, but Wang calls for better monitoring, as they might also be channels of harmful information like pornography and violence.

As of yet, China has no laws to regulate the internet, an issue which should be timely addressed in order to control the dissemination of harmful information while protecting the freedom of expression of the Chinese people, Wang says.