Internet in China: What’s new?
Rebecca MacKinnon has posted a bunch of fresh links to diverse news items about the Internet in China, government control and blogging (17.5 million people! Imagine it!) at her blog, RConversation.
MacKinnon (formerly a bureau chief for CNN in Japan and China) is a co-founder of Global Voices Online, the international citizens media site that recently won the big $10,000 annual award in the Knight-Batten competition.
Add to her links China’s tight rein on online growth, from the BBC (part of a substantial package on today’s China):
Much has been made of the so-called Great Firewall of China that censors what people see using technology built in to the country’s basic net infrastructure. …
But despite the sophistication of these technologies, they are not infallible. …
The web addresses of proxies, that help users see banned pages, are well known. Many activist organisations in the West help pass on the addresses of these pages and set up new ones when old ones are shut down.
Equally there are programs produced by firm such as Dynaweb and Ultrareach that let people see banned sites and get e-mail from overseas.
A new report from Amnesty International states:
Broad and vaguely defined ‘state secrets’ and ‘subversion’ charges in the Criminal Law continue to be used to arbitrarily detain and prosecute journalists, editors and Internet users. While foreign journalists are generally detained for short periods and may face expulsion, Chinese journalists and writers often face much harsher treatment for reporting on issues deemed sensitive by the authorities.
I keep an eye on China, hoping they become more like us in this respect — and also hoping we do not become more like them.
Technorati tags: online media | international | China | censorship
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