The Consequences Of Criticising The Chinese Government – Ai Weiwei Talks About Life In Jail

Nov 142011
 

High profile Chinese Dissident, Ai Weiwei has described his conditions in prison after he was jailed on vague charges following public criticism of the Chinese Government.

Ai describes in an intereview how he was kept in isolation with not even the guards speaking to him, he was denied any reading material and subjected to prolonged interogation.

Speaking to Newsweek, Ai, said he would have prefered beatings to isolation because at least that involved human contact.

Britain Emulates China In The Great Leap Backwards – Seeing Sense In Censorship And Draconian Penalties

Aug 172011
 

British Prime Minister David Cameron has continued to follow the China, Burma, North Korea et al play book when it comes to dealing with criticism and dissent. Censorship, bizarre trials followed by draconian sentencing and threats to freedom of speech have become the norm in the wake of rioting set off by police killing a man in questionable circumstances.

American humorist and social commentator Will Rogers once said: “It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute.”

It took longer than a life time to build up, starting with the Magna Carta nearly 800 years ago,  but not much more than a minute over the past week  for Britain to lose any moral authority it may have once had. It can no longer seriously pressure repressive regimes into embracing freedom of speech, open access to information, democracy and even the basics of the rule of law after its own swift U-turn on those elementary building blocks of civilization.

Yesterday a UK court in Cheshire sentenced two men in their early 20′s, with no previous convictions, to 4 years jail for inciting a riot in  by putting up a Facebook posting calling for people to turn out and run rampant in the streets, that the riot did not take place was seemingly irrelevant.

Britain’s court system appears to have lost its independence and be taking its cues from the politicians,  handing out grossly inappropriate sentences for people even on the periphery of last weeks rioting.

There is no indication if these men in court were serious in their postings, though there is no doubt they must be dumb as a box of rocks, but if everyone who had publicly made an idiotic suggestion was put behind bars there would be some very big prisons.

 This is but one example of the heavy handed sentences given out all in the name of deterrence.

And it all plays into the hands of regimes who reject what they see as “western” notions of free speech and access to information.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and his government are doing irreparable harm not only to the nation’s moral standing but also to that of activists, non governmental organizations and responsible journalists based in the UK. From now on they will all be tarred with the same brush of double standards when they promote democracy or basic human rights such as free speech.

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Chinese State Media Makes First Mention Of Tibet Protests

Oct 252010
 

The official Xinhua News Agency, last weekend, gave the first public report about the Tibetan protests that have spread through-out China and been attended by thousands of people.

 The Tibet Post said the state news agency reported that students had “expressed their dissatisfaction” in at least four Tibetan prefectures in Qinghai between last Sunday and Wednesday.

But there were no reports of the wider extent of the protests or of any of the arrests that followed the demonstrations against what Tibetans see as a policy of taking away their language and replacing it with mandarin.

Meanwhile RFA reports Tibetan students protesting against China’s education policies brought their campaign to the nation’s capital, with some 400 of them holding demonstrations at the Beijing National Minorities University.

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New Website Tracks Oppression Of Online Writers

Dec 032009
 

As more and more people are being threatened or imprisoned for what they write on the internet a new website has been launched to keep track of the oppression.

The websites creator Global Voices Avocacty say many governments have  increased surveillance, filtering, legal actions and harassment. The harshest consequence for many has been the politically motivated arrest of bloggers and online writers for their online and/or offline activities, in some tragic cases even leading to death. Online journalists and bloggers now represent 45% of all media workers in prison worldwide.

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