China Stricter on News Websites

China said Sunday that it was imposing new regulations to control content on its news websites and that it would allow the posting of only “healthy and civilized” news.

The move is part of China’s continuing effort to police the country’s 100 million Internet users. Only the United States, with 135 million online, has more.

The new rules take effect immediately and will “standardize the management of news and information” in the country, the official New China News Agency said Sunday.

Sites should post news only on current events and politics, according to the new regulations issued by the Ministry of Information Industry and China’s cabinet, the State Council. The subjects that would be acceptable under those categories was unclear.

Only “healthy and civilized news and information that is beneficial to the improvement of the quality of the nation, beneficial to its economic development and conducive to social progress” will be allowed, the news agency said. “The sites are prohibited from spreading news and information that goes against state security and public interest,” it added.

Although the Communist government encourages Internet use for education and business, it blocks material it deems subversive or pornographic. Online dissidents who post items critical of the government, or those expressing critical opinions in chat rooms, are regularly arrested and charged under vaguely worded state security laws.

This month, a French media watchdog group said e-mail account data provided by Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. helped lead to the conviction and 10-year prison sentence of a Chinese journalist who had written about media restrictions in an e-mail.

As part of the wider effort to curb potential dissent, the government also has closed thousands of cyber cafes.