According to the report, China has the largest circulation of newspapers with over 1,900 newspapers reaching over 48 billion people in 2013. But over the past two decades, internet-based media has become the most influential media in the country with more than 600 million web users, among them over 500 million use mobile internet. The trend indicated that the country was advancing in integrating traditional media and new internet based media.
The report also highlighted that just from June 30 to July 6 this year new internet sites reached almost 45 million people, as quoted by Xinhua. Also, by the end of July instant messaging services had over 1 billion registered accounts in China.
Recently China has been at the center of attention for the country's often severe media censorship under the pretext of protected freedom of speech. On Monday Gmail was reported to have been blocked in China following months of disruptions on the Google e-mail service. According to anti-censorship groups, China’s authorities are responsible for the block.
However, Beijing claims that the censorship is intended to prevent people from “breaching the rights of the state, society and other people”, as well as tackling online pornography, piracy and hackers, as reported by the news agency.
