Freedom of Press: June 2007 Archives

By REUTERS | via (uncensored) Yahoo! News
June 20, 2007

Yang Zhou is no cyberdissident, but recent curbs on his Web surfing habits by China's censors have him fomenting discontent about China's "Great Firewall."

Yang's fury erupted a few days ago when he found he could not browse his friend's holiday snaps on Flickr.com, due to access restrictions by censors after images of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre were posted on the photo-sharing Web site."

"Once you've complained all you can to your friends, what more can you do? What else is there but anger and disillusionment?" Yang said after venting his anger with friends at a hot-pot restaurant in Beijing.

The blocking of Flickr is the latest casualty of China's ongoing battle to control its sprawling Internet. Wikipedia, and a raft of other popular Web sites, discussion boards and blogs have already fallen victim to the country's censors.

China employs a complex system of filters and an army of tens of thousands of human monitors to survey the country's 140 million Internet users' surfing habits and surgically clip sensitive content from in front of their eyes.

Its stability-obsessed government says the surveillance machinery, commonly known as the "Great Firewall," is necessary to let Internet users enjoy a "healthy" online environment and build a "harmonious" society.

Yang just thinks it's a pain.

"I just want to look at some photos! What's wrong with that?" said the 24-year-old accountant, typical of millions of young urban-dwelling professionals who are increasingly aware of and fed up with state intrusions into their private life.

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By BBC World News
June 08, 2007

An international media watchdog has condemned China for sacking three editors who published an advert marking the 1989 Tiananmen Square bloodshed.

On the 18th anniversary of the killings on Monday, an advert in a provincial paper praised the relatives who still campaign for justice for the victims.

It was accepted for publication by a young office clerk who was not aware of its significance, reports say.

The Chinese government forbids any public discussion of Tiananmen.

The tiny advert on page 14 of the Chengdu Evening News read: "Paying tribute to the strong mothers of June 4 victims."

It is thought to have been a reference to the Tiananmen Mothers' Organisation, which is seeking justice for the students gunned down when government soldiers broke up pro-democracy protests on 4 June 1989.

The young woman who accepted the advert phoned back the person who placed it to ask what "June 4" meant and he told her it was the date of a mining disaster, according to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.

The chief editor and two vice editors were subsequently sacked.

"Those three journalists are innocent victims twice over," the press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders said.

"They let through this ad, because one of their staff didn't know what happened on 4 June 1989, so relentless is censorship about this episode."

"These journalists have as a result fallen victim to a purge, which is typical of this government."

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