The protests in Tibet continue against Chinese rule . Scores are dead. China has blocked YouTube in an attempt to stop videos emerging from its brutality. Australia’s Prime Minister has been urged to use his “influence” with Beijing. Bloggers are transmitting news. The Dalai Lama is caught in the middle. The August Olympic Games could…
Showing all posts tagged China
Just try and stop them
Viva online freedom: Thousands of people are taking part in “virtual protests” against countries accused of censoring the internet. For its first Online Free Expression Day, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has created virtual versions of nine public spaces. These areas where protests are not normally possible include Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and Kim Il-Sung…
Not in an online hurry
The steadily decreasing speed of the internet, brought to you by the friendly web censors in the Chinese Communist Party.
Spielberg…from Shanghai
The Chinese blogosphere speaks: After Steven Spielberg withdrew as artistic director for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, it is not surprising to read angry words towards him in the Chinese press, both on- and off-line. But are there other Chinese who think differently on this issue? Shanghai-based scholar and cultural critic Wang Xiaoyu (王晓渔) published the…
Freedom lives?
The European Union is moving towards the establishment of a European Global Online Freedom Act: The proposal is not focussed at any specific country. It calls on the European Commission to deal with censorship in third countries through it…´s external trade policy. It is in no way solemnly directed at China.
The dual challenge
Major internet companies are starting to realise that their collusion with repressive regimes is biting them on the arse: More Chinese dissidents sue Yahoo! Of course, China appears to be in the middle of a sexual revolution, so perhaps internet censorship isn’t on the minds of many citizens.
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My latest column for New Matilda is about China’s crackdown on internal dissent and its fear of the internet: Although China is also battling a seemingly unsurmountable pollution problem, the regime appears determined to ignore Western calls for greater openness. “Why can’t China accept that dissent and argument are part of being a normal country?”…
Don’t post those full frontal shots
China continues its eradication program of the internet: News from the Ministry of Public Security is that 13 Chinese ministries have been taking a joint action since last month to regulate online order, with the emphasis being given to the cleaning out of such content as candid snapshots, nude pictures and “unhealthy” adult literature. During…
The Orwellian censorship of Wikileaks
The following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Internet censorship is something we normally associate with countries such as Iran or China, but increasingly Western governmental and legal authorities are aggressively restricting the ability of users to view information unimpeded. Such is the story with Wikileaks, one of the most essential websites launched in…
Blogging to (partial) freedom
Ethan Zuckerman discusses the tranformative power of the internet in Kenya: There’s a strong overlap between the emerging middle class in the developing world and the world of citizen media. Bloggers in Africa are highly educated, and generally are wealthier than the average African. (It’s not cheap, in African terms, to afford the amount of…