摘要
民初以还,政府曾数度制订报律,反对者以有违言论出版自由原则、立法程序违制以及民主国家多无报律为由,激烈抵制。这些反对意见并非都能成立,但迫于舆论压力,先后提出的几个报律均被废除。报律废除后,新闻领域呈相对法律真空状态,虽客观上有利于言论表达,但也导致报业无法可依,野蛮生长,严重失范。面对这种局面,国人开始反思,却因政治分歧导致重建报律时的不同路线选择:北洋政府提出《报纸法案》,试图通过法律路线解决问题,由于政局动荡及报人意见歧出,未蒇其功;南方的国民党则通过政治解决路线,在北伐推翻军阀统治后,建立起一套全新的报业法规,民国报业失范状况有所改观。但因国民党专制集权,产生比民初及北洋时期更为严重报业束缚。近代报人追求新闻出版“绝对自由”,却种瓜得豆,事与愿违。
At the beginning of the Republic of China,the Nanjing Provisional Government abolished the Daqing Press Law and simultaneously promulgated the Interim Press Law to regulate the press industry.Opponents vehemently resisted on the grounds that this press law violated the principle of freedom of the press and publication,that its legislation was not in line with proper procedures,and that most democratic countries did not have such press laws.Facing the opposition from the press circle,the Nanjing Provisional Government quickly abolished its Interim Press Law.The first press law of the Republic of China only existed for a week.In April 1914,the government of Yuan Shikai promulgated the Newspaper Regulations,known as the new press law.It stipulated that newspaper establishment required registration and the payment of a security deposit.Newspapers were prohibited from publishing content that damaged others’reputation and interests and other prohibited items.At the same time,it was stipulated that news manuscripts involving diplomacy,military affairs,etc.,must be filed with the police authorities before publication,and penalties for violations were also specified.As soon as this regulation was announced,it was met with a flood of criticism.People in the press circle believed that this regulation included a“pre-examination system,”which violated the principle that press and publication should be“absolutely free.”The original intention of the opponents was to safeguard the legally granted rights of freedom of the press and publication under the republican democratic system,but not all of their objections were tenable.Among them,the most crucial“pre-examination system”for news did not actually exist in the new press law.However,due to the continuous resistance of the opponents,this press law was abolished soon after Yuan Shikai’s death.After the successive abolition of the two press laws,the State Council meeting of the Beiyang Government once proposed the application of the Daqing Press Law.Prime Minister Duan Qirui and others believed that this press law was formulated during the previous Qing dynasty and did not conform to the republican system,and they advocated the“temporary laissez-faire doctrine”under the current situation.The combination of the official“laissez-faire”attitude and the radical press circle’s advocacy of“absolute freedom”of press and publication led to a relatively legal vacuum in the news field.Although objectively it was conducive to the expression of opinions,it also caused the press industry to have no laws to follow and to be seriously out of order.The specific manifestations were as follows:1.The press industry lost its threshold,and anyone could start a newspaper,resulting in a decline in the quality of newspapers.2.The quality of journalists varied greatly.There were endless cases of journalists accepting government subsidies,soliciting bribes from warlords and politicians,and extorting money from officials and civilians involved.3.False news was rampant,and news reports were seriously inconsistent with the facts,greatly damaging the reputation of newspapers.Facing this situation,the Chinese people began to reflect,but due to political differences between the north and the south,different routes were chosen for the reconstruction of press laws.The north controlled by the Beiyang Government proposed the Newspaper Bill,which was more standardized and more mature compared to the two press laws in the early Republican period,attempting to solve the problem of the out-of-order state of the press industry through the legal route.However,due to political unrest and differences of opinion among journalists,this bill could not pass the legislative procedures in Congress and failed to achieve its goal.The Kuomintang in the south chose the political solution route.After overthrowing the political rule of the Beiyang Government through the Northern Expedition,it established a brand-new set of press regulations,and the out-of-order situation of the press industry improved to some extent.However,due to the Kuomintang’s autocratic centralization of power and its confusion of propaganda and news,it brought about more serious restrictions on the press industry that had occurred neither in the early days of the Republic or in the Beiyang period.Modern journalists pursued“absolute freedom”of press and publication,but they got the opposite result,achieving something contrary to their original intentions.
出处
《四川大学学报(哲学社会科学版)》
北大核心
2025年第2期155-174,237,238,共22页
Journal of Sichuan University:Philosophy and Social Science Edition
基金
国家社会科学基金重大招标课题“中国国会会议史”(2019ZAS016)。
关键词
民国前期
报律兴废
报业失范
报律重建
Early Republican China
Rise and fall of press laws
Disorder of the press industry
Reconstruction of press laws
作者简介
杨天宏,四川大学历史文化学院教授(成都610064)。
