Confusion through the Beijing smog

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: Western critics of Beijing should be careful what they wish for during the Games, writes Antony Loewenstein Amnesty International’s latest report on China’s human rights record makes for depressing reading. “We’ve seen a deterioration in human rights because of…

Women stay home

So much for the Olympic dream: 10,000 athletes from 200 countries are about to gather in Beijing under the banner “One World, One Dream.” But for sportswomen from countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iran, that dream remains unfulfilled. While the International Olympic Committee bans any gender discrimination, these Gulf countries invoke “cultural and…

How not to help the Chinese, part 9

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: Sport isn’t the only thing on the minds of multinationals in Beijing, writes Antony Loewenstein Human rights issues? What human rights issues? With only a few weeks until the start of the Beijing Games, this seems to be the…

The Beijing countdown continues

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: It is time for Western human rights activists to pressure China in new ways, writes Antony Loewenstein With less than one month until the start of the Games, Beijing is trying to make itself more beautiful. Pollution is still…

Raging against rising internet repression

My following article appears in the US magazine The Nation on the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit and the issue of web repression: During the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2008–sponsored by Harvard University and Google in Budapest, Hungary, in late June, and attended by over 200 bloggers, human rights activists, writers, journalists, hackers and…

Rise of human rights consciousness

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: We don’t need American, mainstream journalists telling us that something is wrong in China, writes Antony Loewenstein Chinese dissidents will continue to push for democratic change. This is certain in an Olympic year, but these voices are undoubtedly stronger…

China is not a one-sided story

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: Westerners must look at China in all its diversity, including voices of reason, writes Antony Loewenstein During last week’s Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Budapest, Hungary, where I presented a paper on the role of the internet in…

Democracy is not a foreign word

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: We ignore the diversity of China’s web community at our peril, writes Antony Loewenstein Is the West afraid of Chinese patriotism? Some Chinese bloggers think it is but remain aware of the ways in which such sentiments could be…

Dissent with a Chinese face

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: The Olympic Games will show the world a different kind of China, writes Antony Loewenstein During last weekend’s Chinese Internet Research Conference in Hong Kong, Hu Yong, Associate Professor at Peking University, said that after the Sichuan earthquake, many…

The disaster that opened the door

My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: Once small freedoms are granted in China, they are not easily reversed, writes Antony Loewenstein The Sichuan earthquake may have largely fallen off the Western media’s radar but the Chinese people remain focused on the disaster. A number of…

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