China Blocks New York Times Web Site
China has blocked access to The New York Times' Web site, the newspaper said Saturday, days after the central government defended its right to censor online content it deems illegal.
Computer users who logged on in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou received a message that the site was not available when they tried to connect on Friday morning, the paper said. Some users were cut off as early as Thursday evening, it said.
The Web site remained inaccessible from Beijing Saturday.
It was not clear whether the move was meant to block specific content on the newspaper's Web site or whether it was a return to stricter censorship of the Internet in general. Beijing loosened some media and Internet controls during the 2008 Summer Olympics - gestures that were meant to show the international community that the games had brought greater freedom to the Chinese people.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said it does not deal with Web sites. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which regulates the Internet, could not be reached for comment.
Earlier this week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao defended China's right to censor Web sites that have material deemed illegal by the government, saying that other countries regulate Internet usage, too.
During the August games, China allowed access to long-barred Web sites such as those of the British Broadcasting Corp. and Human Rights Watch after an outcry from foreign reporters who complained that Beijing was failing to live up to its pledges of greater media freedom.
The New York Times said Beijing had blocked the Chinese-language Web site of the BBC, and Web sites of Voice of America, Asiaweek, and Ming Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper, earlier in the week. But apart from Ming Pao, the sites were all accessible Friday, it said.
Ming Pao's online site was still inaccessible Saturday in Beijing.
China has the most online users in the world with more than 250 million, but it has also put in place a sophisticated system to police Web sites for sensitive material and routinely blocks sites that support Tibetan independence or the region's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
A spokeswoman for The Times, Catherine J. Mathis, told the paper that there did not appear to be a technical issue. Users in Japan, Hong Kong, and the U.S. were also not experiencing difficulties, the paper said.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Computer users who logged on in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou received a message that the site was not available when they tried to connect on Friday morning, the paper said. Some users were cut off as early as Thursday evening, it said.
The Web site remained inaccessible from Beijing Saturday.
It was not clear whether the move was meant to block specific content on the newspaper's Web site or whether it was a return to stricter censorship of the Internet in general. Beijing loosened some media and Internet controls during the 2008 Summer Olympics - gestures that were meant to show the international community that the games had brought greater freedom to the Chinese people.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said it does not deal with Web sites. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which regulates the Internet, could not be reached for comment.
Earlier this week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao defended China's right to censor Web sites that have material deemed illegal by the government, saying that other countries regulate Internet usage, too.
During the August games, China allowed access to long-barred Web sites such as those of the British Broadcasting Corp. and Human Rights Watch after an outcry from foreign reporters who complained that Beijing was failing to live up to its pledges of greater media freedom.
The New York Times said Beijing had blocked the Chinese-language Web site of the BBC, and Web sites of Voice of America, Asiaweek, and Ming Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper, earlier in the week. But apart from Ming Pao, the sites were all accessible Friday, it said.
Ming Pao's online site was still inaccessible Saturday in Beijing.
China has the most online users in the world with more than 250 million, but it has also put in place a sophisticated system to police Web sites for sensitive material and routinely blocks sites that support Tibetan independence or the region's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
A spokeswoman for The Times, Catherine J. Mathis, told the paper that there did not appear to be a technical issue. Users in Japan, Hong Kong, and the U.S. were also not experiencing difficulties, the paper said.
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You don''t understand economics and don''t understand globalization which EVERY company must face in order to survive. Do you shop at Wal-mart? Do you buy Japanese goods? Do you buy German goods? I can go on. All these other countries have their manufacturing bases in China, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia,etc. It''s all intertwined. Linked like a chainmail.
Spare us your boycotting diatribes. You just dont get it.
Unless you live alone in the woods and have no outside contact then you can suggest other Americans to boycott and make their choices similar to you. Otherwise, you''re a hypocrite.
Companies exist to do what? Answer that question? Who benefits? Taxes, wages, pensions, donations, charities...do you think these all can exist WITHOUT PROFITS?
Chinese goods have killed our pets, poisoned our children and even killed their own. When are people going to finally stop buying goods with the Made in China label?
Posted by ken1dall at 05:38 PM : Dec 21, 2008
Yes,Newspapers help liberate people,...It is a way for the Chinese people to read about and practice human rights as we know them.
( BTW,I think they meant " too liberal ",but,they are probably a product of ShrubCo. or Rushpharm thinking,..)