China Defends Online Censorship Protest
The Chinese government said Wednesday that accusations by a press freedom group that it was one of the worst culprits of systematic online censorship were "groundless" and that its citizens could freely access the Internet.
China was one of 13 countries singled out by Reporters Without Borders in a 24-hour online protest against Internet censorship. The others were: Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
"We find these accusations groundless," said an officer at the Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesperson's office who declined to be named according to department policy.
"The Chinese enjoy free access to the Internet and they can have the information they need. Currently, the information the Chinese people get is far more than before the introduction of the Internet in this country."
China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users after the United States, with more than 123 million people online. Though the communist government promotes Internet use, it has also set up an extensive surveillance and filtering system to prevent Chinese from accessing material considered obscene or politically subversive.
The government said its management of the Internet complied with international standards.
"As in other countries, the Internet is managed according to international standards, the law, and the self-management of Internet service providers," the Foreign Ministry duty officer said.
But the Paris-based group, Reporters Sans Frontieres in French, said in its annual report that out of 61 people worldwide who have been imprisoned for posting what the respective countries claimed was "subversive" content, 52 were in China.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government denied that anyone has been arrested for Internet postings, despite a series of dissidents jailed in recent years for online comments criticizing corruption and calling for democratic change.
"No one should ever be prevented from posting news online or writing a blog," said the group, which taps more than 100 journalists who are "keeping us informed."
The cyberspace demonstration was advertised in New York's Manhattan district — in Times Square and in Bryant Park — on truck-transported billboards. As of Wednesday, 17,000 people had registered their protest on a so-called Internet enemies map, according to the group, which also said the protest Web site would remain open for a few more days.
The 13 countries "censor and block online content that criticizes them," the organization said in defining its protest. "Multinationals such as Yahoo! cooperate with the Chinese
government in filtering the Internet and tracking down cyber-dissidents."
Reporters Without Borders said it obtained a copy of the verdict in the case of Jiang Lijun, sentenced to four years in prison in November 2003 for his online pro-democracy articles in China. Reporters Without Borders said that the search engine company Yahoo! Inc. had helped Chinese police identify him.
"It's one thing to turn a blind eye to censorship — it's another thing to collaborate," said Lucie Morillon, the group's spokeswoman in Washington.
In a statement, Yahoo! said: "We continue to employ rigorous procedural protections under applicable laws in response to government requests for information, maintaining our commitment to user privacy and compliance with the law."
The Cuban government, Reporters Without Borders said, "ensures that there is no Internet access for its political opponents and independent journalists, for whom reaching news media abroad is an ordeal."
The punishment for writing "a few counterrevolutionary articles" for foreign Web sites can be years in prison, it said.
Reporters Without Borders said it tracks cases of online repression in various ways, including through court cases and reports of arrests by family and friends.
The nonprofit group, founded in 1985 by French journalist Robert Menard, is 70 percent funded by sales of its magazine, Reporters Without Borders For Press Freedom, which includes photos of journalists in jail. About 200,000 copies are printed three times a year.
Nepal, Maldives and Libya have been removed from Reporters Without Borders' annual list of Internet enemies. But there's an addition to the list, Egypt, where it said "many bloggers were harassed and imprisoned this year."
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. China was one of 13 countries singled out by Reporters Without Borders in a 24-hour online protest against Internet censorship. The others were: Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
"We find these accusations groundless," said an officer at the Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesperson's office who declined to be named according to department policy.
"The Chinese enjoy free access to the Internet and they can have the information they need. Currently, the information the Chinese people get is far more than before the introduction of the Internet in this country."
China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users after the United States, with more than 123 million people online. Though the communist government promotes Internet use, it has also set up an extensive surveillance and filtering system to prevent Chinese from accessing material considered obscene or politically subversive.
The government said its management of the Internet complied with international standards.
"As in other countries, the Internet is managed according to international standards, the law, and the self-management of Internet service providers," the Foreign Ministry duty officer said.
But the Paris-based group, Reporters Sans Frontieres in French, said in its annual report that out of 61 people worldwide who have been imprisoned for posting what the respective countries claimed was "subversive" content, 52 were in China.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government denied that anyone has been arrested for Internet postings, despite a series of dissidents jailed in recent years for online comments criticizing corruption and calling for democratic change.
"No one should ever be prevented from posting news online or writing a blog," said the group, which taps more than 100 journalists who are "keeping us informed."
The cyberspace demonstration was advertised in New York's Manhattan district — in Times Square and in Bryant Park — on truck-transported billboards. As of Wednesday, 17,000 people had registered their protest on a so-called Internet enemies map, according to the group, which also said the protest Web site would remain open for a few more days.
The 13 countries "censor and block online content that criticizes them," the organization said in defining its protest. "Multinationals such as Yahoo! cooperate with the Chinese
government in filtering the Internet and tracking down cyber-dissidents."
Reporters Without Borders said it obtained a copy of the verdict in the case of Jiang Lijun, sentenced to four years in prison in November 2003 for his online pro-democracy articles in China. Reporters Without Borders said that the search engine company Yahoo! Inc. had helped Chinese police identify him.
"It's one thing to turn a blind eye to censorship — it's another thing to collaborate," said Lucie Morillon, the group's spokeswoman in Washington.
In a statement, Yahoo! said: "We continue to employ rigorous procedural protections under applicable laws in response to government requests for information, maintaining our commitment to user privacy and compliance with the law."
The Cuban government, Reporters Without Borders said, "ensures that there is no Internet access for its political opponents and independent journalists, for whom reaching news media abroad is an ordeal."
The punishment for writing "a few counterrevolutionary articles" for foreign Web sites can be years in prison, it said.
Reporters Without Borders said it tracks cases of online repression in various ways, including through court cases and reports of arrests by family and friends.
The nonprofit group, founded in 1985 by French journalist Robert Menard, is 70 percent funded by sales of its magazine, Reporters Without Borders For Press Freedom, which includes photos of journalists in jail. About 200,000 copies are printed three times a year.
Nepal, Maldives and Libya have been removed from Reporters Without Borders' annual list of Internet enemies. But there's an addition to the list, Egypt, where it said "many bloggers were harassed and imprisoned this year."
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Apparently, fartknocker32 does not yet understand he contradicts his own position on invading Iraq to "liberate" a people from a dictatorship. According to fartknocker, whatever the communist dictatorship in Beijing does is just peachy.
The point is not the US 3rd infantry division should land in Beijing, but at least the Bush regime should have the decency to recognize mercenary American firms are selling their souls to Beijing, building up its police state, in order to get market share.
What few people realize is Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas is also heavily invested in currying favor from the PRC. Boeing PR even refers to Tibet as a "remote province of China". What could be more ominous than having our leading defense contractor doing high-tech manufacturing for Beijing? Reminds me of the Ford Motor Company, and its massive investments in prewar Germany.
Isn't Bush the self-proclaimed "champion of democracy"? Apparently, only when it suits his own rhetoric.
Go figure!"
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djermano, the issue of giving the PRC security apparantus what it needs to tighten its hold on dissent is exactly about internet traffic. If the PRC cannot control it, democratic elements can organize. The last time they tried, they terrified Beijing into a Tiananmen Square massacre.
The point is giving secret police of a dictatorship the means to crush its people is a shameless sellout, motivated by hope of a quid pro quo-- give us the electronic handcuffs, and we will assure you of a captive market of 1.4 billion Chinese.
Go figure!
The far-sighted dicatorship of the proletariat in Beijing has bought equipment from freedom-loving US firms such as CISCO which enable it to control how internet traffic moves into and out of China, and to monitor that traffic to a surprising degree.
Freedom-loving and fiercely-patriotic American firms like Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have no problem with placidly assisting PRC secret police and by making sure they reinforce the "bamboo curtain"-- violating every privacy guarantee to which most of the rest of the world is accustomed, all to please their new masters in Beijing.
To Cisco, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google, all this smooth and seamless cooperation with a dictatorship is merely part of the cost of doing business in the world's most lucrative new market. Talk about a statement of corporate values...