China moves to ban all news outlets not funded by Communist Party

China could ban all news media not funded directly by the Communist Party under new rules that will likely further limit freedom of speech. Beijing published a draft law stating that privately-funded organisations “shall not engage in news-gathering, editing, and broadcasting”. Officials have not confirmed whether the new rules will apply to foreign news organisations operating in China , effectively making them illegal. But the move nevertheless indicates that Beijing may be preparing to exercise even greater control over the news, much of which is already state-controlled, further shrinking the platform for public scrutiny. The proposed new rules ban private…