Internet: July 2006 Archives

BBC News
July 20, 2006

Amnesty International is urging users of Yahoo, Microsoft and Google to e-mail the companies asking them to change the way they operate in China.

The human rights organisation says the companies are aiding internet censorship in the Communist state.

And it is asking them to reveal which words they have banned from blogs or web searches in China.

The internet companies say they are helping the people of China by making information more freely available.

But Amnesty says they are helping to reinforce censorship by the Chinese government.

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By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes | BBC News
July 20, 2006

More than 110 million people in China use the internet regularly. The country is going through a digital revolution as it seeks to capitalise on the online world while at the same time enforcing strict censorship measures.
But what does the internet mean to people in China? BBC News spoke to a dissident, a film-maker and a journalist.

DISSIDENT WRITER LIU XIAOBO

Liu Xiaobo has taken part in every political movement in China in the last 30 years including the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations and the 1979 democracy wall movement.

He has been to prison twice and is banned from publishing any articles inside China.

In China, where there's no freedom of speech, the role of the internet is much bigger than in Western countries which enjoy free speech.

Since the days of Mao Zedong, the authorities have created a very closed prison of information. There is only one voice. But with the appearance of the internet, cracks are appearing all over this prison.

The internet is the best gift god could send to China for the people of China to claim their rights.

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