Ominous Signs For Free Speech And Netizens During China’s Party Congress

Nov 192012
 

So how open was the Chinese Communist Party’s  Congress. For netizens the answer would be “not even a little bit”.

In a demonstration that the old idea of say nothing and make sure no-one else does either the congress was marked by censorship, widespread internet outages and other attempts to suppress free speech. Any thought that things may be easing for China’s netizens were quickly dismissed.

The best account of what went on during the Congress comes from free speech advocacy group Global Voices.

As China’s new generation of leaders were officially presented to the world this week at the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th National Congress, Chinese netizens experienced severe Internet interruptions. As the longtime Beijing-based blogger and businessman Bill Bishop described it, “these have been the most draconian few days of Internet restrictions I have experienced.”

Several weeks before the Congress, netizens began to report frequent disruptions when accessing Google services, foreign websites and virtual private networks (VPNs) – important tools for Internet users to circumvent the “Great Firewall.”  Interruptions to Internet access then cranked into high gear on November 9, one day after the start of the Congress, when Google services were reported to be fully blocked in China, and their domain name systems were deliberately redirected to unknown IP addresses in Korea. Please see Greatfire.org for more detailed reports and analysis.

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Burmese Comedian And Activist Sees Progress In Freedom of Speech And Regression In Ethnic Unrest

Jun 192012
 

Burmese comedian and film director Maung Thura better known by his professional name Zarganar highlights Burma’s progress on free speech, censorship and political detention at the same time he is pessimistic that those advances in democratic freedoms could be threatened by an upsurge in ethnic violence.

He wrote this commentary for Britain’s Guardian Newspaper.

As a comedian, poet, film-maker and loudmouth, I often fell foul of the censors in Burma, where I was a political prisoner four times. Sometimes it was through deliberate provocation, such as my insistence on trying to include kidnap scenes in all of my films, where at some point the good guys would exclaim “we must free that lady!”, a thinly veiled act of resistance which caught on in the industry and became obligatory for many film-makers during Aung San Suu Kyi’s imprisonment.

My most recent sentence was for 35 years, imposed for criticism of the Burmese government’s woeful response to Cyclone Nargis in 2008, and from which I was released last autumn as part of a mass amnesty. Yet I have also been imprisoned simply for using the internet. It might be interesting to learn that communications were policed by people who understood little about the technology they were patrolling. I don’t think it takes a comedian to see the funny side of police confiscating my computer screen, but leaving the hard drive. Freedom of expression has been rigorously denied for a long time, but Burma is very definitely changing and, in this new world, new challenges are presenting themselves.

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China Launchs State Sanitized Search Engine

Feb 282011
 

China’s latest effort to control what its netizens have access to is a new search engine launched in association with the government news agency, Xinhua News Agency.

The search engine “Panguso” marks a new turn in China’s seemingly endless battle against free speech.

It will allow censors to stop what they deem prohibited material from turning up on the nations’ computers so long as they are using that particular search engine.

Censors seemed to have overlooked the obvious way round the sanitized search – use a different one even the state sanctioned Baidu.

William Fenton on PCmag.com website said that it was a sign that ”despite its capitalistic flight, China’s economic dragon hasn’t quite shed its red.”

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Newspaper’s Closure Is A Devestating Blow For Burma’s Free Press

Jan 232011
 

Burma’s clandestine newspaper the Irrawaddy  is closing down its print operation for financial reasons. And  the news is best summed up be the editor “ penury is the best form of censorship”.

The Irrawaddy has tried hard to maintain an independent editorial stance despite being formed by Burmese who had fled the country’s authoritarian rule and settled in Thailand.

It has been a reliable source of information from Burma with good contacts inside the country however the costs of putting out a print version have become too much. It will continue as an on-line publication but that does restrict its access.

Britain’s right leaning news magazine the Spectator reported this week that what had started out as a promising week for free speech with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi being given Internet access for the first time on Friday ended with the announcement of the Irrawaddy’s financial woes.

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Low Tech Ways Around China’s Censorship Regime Goes Hi Tech

Dec 282010
 

China’s “great firewall” and comprehensive system of online censorship and monitoring has forced netizens to adopt a simple and low tech approach to get their message out.

They have been using symbols, letters and made up words for those that would attract the ire of the authorities. Now that system has been incorporated into software to make it easier to use.

The Epoch times reports : “A program called the “Anti-Harmonizer” (fang hexie qi) has gained attention and popularity among the Chinese Internet citizenry (netizens). “Harmonization” is a common sarcastic reference by Internet users to the Communist Party’s euphemism for suppressing dissent and censoring voices unfavorable to the regime, ostensibly to foster a “harmonious society.”
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Chinese Authorities Cancel Blogger Conference

Nov 232010
 

Chinese authorities forced organizers to cancel an annual blogging conference in Shanghai this weekend, a mover many see as the latest sign of increasing repression of free speech and censorship on the internet.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Chinese Blogger Conference has attracted dozens of prominent online commentators, entrepreneurs, digital artists and others each year since it was started in Shanghai in 2005. Many of the attendees have been critical of government censorship, so the event is considered potentially sensitive.

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China’s Party Elders Call For Free Speech And End To Cyber Censorship

Oct 142010
 

Senior members of China’s Communist Party have written a letter to the Government asking it to abide by the constitution and ensure free speech and free access to information including that from the internet.

Among the signatories was Li Rui, Mao Zedong’s former secretary. The pro reform elders letter has become public at a time when censorship is a hot topic in China following the awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo.

China’s censors moved swiftly to clamp down on information about the pro-democracy advocat.

However the letter from the party elders appears to be coincidental to the Nobel Prize. Their letter was dated October 1, well before the announcement was made according to The China Media Project

The letter is posted in full below.

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Impromtu Speech May Be Key To Tibetan 2008 Uprising

Aug 062010
 
It is being suggested that a spontaneous public address by a middle aged Tibetan nomad may have sparked the 2008 unprising.
On August 1st 2007, thousands of Tibetans attended the famous summer horse festival in Lithang County in the Tibetan region of  Sichuan province. Just before the official speeches were due to begin Runngye Adak grabbed the microphone to outline Tibetan grievances.
Rebecca Novak, writing in the HuffingtonPost, said Tibetan rights groups this week released previously unseen video footage of the speech to mark the anniversary of the uprising which was suppressed with violent force by the Chinese authorities.
The speech was captured by a Western filmaker who did not understand what was being said so attached no importance to it.
But now it has been discovered it is thought  that it may have been the catalyst for the uprising. Part of the speech included:

Kiwis, Chinese Clash Over Free Speech

Jul 132010
 

Over the last month a controversy has simmered in the small pacific nation of New Zealand following a state visit by China’s Vice President Xi Jinping in June.

And central to the issue is, at what point does a nation abandon its fundamental values for fear of upsetting a trading partner?

It started with a Tibetan flag. As the Chinese delegation arrived at Parliament they were greeted by Green Party MP Russell Norman,  holding up a Tibetan flag in silence.

Chinese security officials with entourage intervened and tore the flag away and assaulted him. The whole incident was caught on television.

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New Zealand’s reaction to the incident has been mixed but New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was quick to apologize for Russell Norman’s actions not once but twice, once in New Zealand and last week on a visit to China according to TVNZ.

Key said: “I really don’t think that we should be inviting people to New Zealand at that level of seniority and then not showing them the respect that they can enter and exit a building.” Continue reading »

Censorship In China The Old Fashioned Way

Jul 072010
 

  There is considerable interest and attention paid to China’s attempts at online censorship but when a prominent government critic was detained this week it showed old fashioned and less sophisticated methods of shutting down free speech were alive and well.

 Best-selling Chinese author and democracy advocate, Yu Jie, told RFA’s mandarin service that he had been detained by security agents on Monday and threatened with imprisonment if he went ahead with plans to publish a book criticizing China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

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