Selective use of FARA on media outlets deeply disturbing

The Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday that the US Department of Justice has ordered Xinhua News Agency and China Global Television Network to register as foreign agents is deeply troubling.

The Foreign Agent Registration Act, enacted in 1938 to counter Nazi propaganda, has been mainly applied to lobbyists for foreign governments, and rarely used against the news media in the past decades. But that has changed over the past two years thanks to some US politicians fear-mongering about Russian and Chinese media outlets.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang was right in saying "countries should perceive media's role in promoting international exchange and cooperation in an open and inclusive spirit" and "facilitate rather than obstruct media's normal work, still less politicizing the relevant issue".