Hug a Chinese blogger

It's easy to get complacent about the freedoms provided by the internet. Whilst most of us in the West freely blog away contendedly, arguing about the trivialities of whatever occupies the space between our ears, things are not so easy in other parts of the world.

Reporters Without Borders are campaigning against the archaic restrictions being imposed by the Chinese government:

Reporters Without Borders voiced alarm today at the Chinese government's announced intention to close down all China-based websites and blogs that are not officially registered. The plan is all the more worrying as the government has also revealed that it has a new system for monitoring sites in real time and spotting those that fail to comply.

A China-based blogger told Reporters Without Borders on condition of anonymity that the Shanghai police recently rendered his website inaccessible because it had not been registered. He then phoned the MII to ask what he had to do in order to register, and was told that in his case it was "not worth bothering" because "there was no chance of an independent blog getting permission to publish."

So go on, hug a Chinese blogger today. Tell Hailey and Yang and Viviana and Wanbro and Charles that you support their right to free speech.

Comments

boy_fromOz said…
Open Democracy picked up this story some time ago
http://www.opendemocracy.net/media-edemocracy/china_internet_2524.jsp

on a related subject, we've got a fairly lengthy discussion string going on Jeremy's blog (www.modleft.blogspot.com) re the Chen Yonglin affair
11 June 2005 at 16:37
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