Freedom to Blog
Great summary of efforts by authoritarian regimes to block blogging and other free speech with lots of links to important documents (by Andrew Hansen of CFR.org). Here are some of the key resources:
- “China’s Hu vows to ‘purify’ the Internet” (via Reuters)
- China’s crackdown on Internet cafes (via BusinessWeek)
- “Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents” (via Reporters Without Borders)
- China tightens control on Internet news content (via OpenNet Initiative)
- “Internet fuels rise in number of jailed journalists” (via Committee to Protect Journalists)
There are, of course, a number of bloggers among us dealing with this issue (and writing about it) all the time: Chris at Eyes East, Jeremiah at Granite Studio, Richard at Peking Duck, among many others.
The lesson in all of this: try as you may, bloggers and non-blogging citizens will continue to find ways to be heard in the age of digital information distribution.
April 5, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Have you heard anything about this?
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/04/chinese_invited_to_help_pentag.php
April 10, 2007 at 2:50 am
No, but it doesn’t seem so unusual to me. Never heard of the group cited in the article.
April 20, 2007 at 3:33 am
[...] Web companies such as Yahoo contend they have little choice but to surrender information, since company employees could be subject to civil and criminal sanctions if they ignore local laws. Yahoo says it will to continue offering services in China in part because the Internet has the power to enable change. Yes, it’s also the hottest market on the planet. But I don’t find this line of argument disingenuous. I may be naive and idealistic, but I do believe the Internet will prove to be transformative for Chinese society. There are ironies and paradoxes in all this, but at the end of the day, there still does not exist any reliable way to control the distribution of information over the Internet. If this condition persists, then the network should eventually prevail. [For more information on China’s efforts to restrict blogging, see my earlier post here]. [...]