Significant jump of China’s censorship capabilities before the Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre

Beginning early Friday morning, users of Sina Corp.’s massively popular Weibo microblog were able to search for information about one of the most sensitive incidents in recent Chinese history: the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

In a serious shift of censorship tactics just days ahead of the anniversary of the government’s bloody June 4, 1989 crackdown on protestors in Tiananmen, Sina appears to have begun to allow searches for terms associated with the highly sensitive event. But instead of turning up content related to the incident, searches yield results that have nothing to do with the protests or the government’s heavy-handed response.

Chinese Intellectuals Avoid Key Issues Amid Censorship Fears, Says Award-winning Author

Chinese writers have shirked their responsibilities in the face of tougher censorship over the past 10 years, one of the country’s authors has said.

Yan Lianke, whose bleakly humorous novel Lenin’s Kisses is published in Britain on Thursday, had two books banned in the past decade. He said it had been easier to publish in the five years before that.

Hong Kong Falls 4 Points in Annual World Press Freedom Index

Press freedom in Hong Kong took a blow this year, falling four points in Reporters Without Borders’ annual report.

The World Press Freedom Index measures “the freedom to produce and circulate accurate news and information.”

[Mak Yin-ting, Chairwoman of Hong Kong Journalist Association]:
“The deterioration of press freedom is very serious now. It has reached a critical point. It’s a significant time now to determine if Hong Kong is an independent place or if it’s turning into a place like mainland China’s lack of freedom.”

China blocks magazine over Taiwan democracy report

A Chinese magazine dedicated to history has been forced to halt the release of a February issue that was to chronicle Taiwan’s democratic transformation, a Shanghai-based newspaper reported yesterday.

“National History” magazine, published by the state-run Chengdu Xianfeng Culture Media Co. based in Sichuan province, had compiled a series of articles authored by Taiwanese writers for a special February edition titled “Taiwan’s Foot,” the Oriental Daily News reported.

Chinese Authorities extend censorship, step up reprisals against dissidents

Reporters Without Borders calls for an international reaction to the all-out censorship of information in China that includes website blocking, prior censorship of social networks and the dismissal of journalists who cover sensitive stories. The government is stepping up efforts to silence criticism and independent reporting, taking advantage of widespread indifference in the international community, especially UN bodies.

“It is clear from the latest events that the authorities are keeping their overall control of information with continuing consequences for those who try to use free speech to any degree,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Instead of relaxing controls, the government seems bent on reinforcing censorship of all kinds of media, including print, online, national and foreign. At the same time, the disturbing silence from the international community is not helping.

China Increasingly Repressive, Freedom House 2012 Report Finds

China is becoming increasingly repressive in civil and political life amidst aggressive crackdowns and disappearances, a democracy and human rights advocacy group said Thursday.

In an annual report entitled “The Worst of the Worst: The World’s Most Repressive Societies,” Washington-based Freedom House listed China, Burma, Laos, and North Korea among the world’s worst-rated countries for political rights and civil liberties.

In Asia, North Korea and the disputed territory of Tibet were placed at the very bottom of the list.

China Ends Microblog Weibo’s Anonymity

Authorities implement a new measure to monitor the country’s blogosphere

Beijing-based microbloggers on Friday will be prevented from registering an account on one of the country’s hugely popular Twitter-like services in anything but their real name, verified by their national ID card.

The move has been slammed by netizens and rights groups alike as a huge blow to freedom of expression in China, where many rely on services like Sina Weibo to find news and views that have been censored out of the tightly controlled state media.

“The microblog revolution, sharing of opinions, and increased circulation of news resulting from microblogs have led the regime to take certain measures,” the Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in an annual report this week.

China Clamps Down on Microblogs, Requires Account Holders to Use Real Names

Netizens see a new rule requiring users to register with their real names as a bid to muzzle criticism.

New microblog rules requiring account holders to use their real names are being rolled out in two other major Chinese cities following the first clampdown on Twitter-like services in Beijing earlier this month.

Seven major websites in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, in the southern province of Guangdong, began on Thursday to ask new users to register with real names, the provincial publicity department said in a statement.

The Price of Yahoo! Sale to China- Free Expression ?

Yahoo, the most visited web portal in the United States, appears to be shopping for a parent company. Jack Ma, the Chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., China’s largest e-commerce company, has recently said that he is “very interested” in acquiring the U.S.-based company. Such a shake-up may be just what Yahoo is looking for as a means of reviving growth within the company, but it also raises some significant concerns over the maintenance of Yahoo’s human rights obligations as a major repository and purveyor of information on the internet and an early cautionary example of the challenges companies face when pressed by governments to provide sensitive user information.

Seven years ago, at the Chinese government’s request, Yahoo’s Hong Kong office turned over information that led to the imprisonment of  journalist Shi Tao. Yahoo sought to make amends in various ways, including adopting internal policies and joining with other internet service providers and stakeholders to promote a common, rights-based approach to government demands. Human Rights First urges that any potential  Yahoo suitor commit to upholding Yahoo’s existing policies, and its commitments as a member of the Global Network Initiative, as a starting point.

China censors Ai Weiwei’s Newsweek essay

BEIJING(AFP) — Chinese censors have removed an essay by Ai Weiwei in which the dissident artist strongly criticises the country’s government and justice system from the latest issue of Newsweek magazine.

The article, Ai’s first for a foreign publication since he was released from detention earlier this year, had been ripped from copies of the September 5 issue seen by AFP on a newsstand in Beijing.

In the essay Ai, 54, whose artworks have been displayed around the world, said his ordeal in police custody made him realise he was only a number in an anonymous system where “they deny us basic rights”.

Writer Lü Gengsong Released from Prison, refuses Conditions of Deprivation of Political Rights

(HRIC) – Writer Lü Gengsong (吕耿松) was released from the Xijiao Prison in Hangzhou on August 23, 2011, after serving a four-year sentence following a conviction for “inciting subversion of state power.” Lü is also subject to one year of deprivation of political rights following his release, which includes prohibitions on publishing and accepting interviews.

According to an informed source, after his release, when officials in Lü’s Neighborhood Committee asked him to sign a guarantee that he would abide by the conditions of deprivation of political rights, Lü refused to sign. In addition, he tore up his copy of a document specifying the terms of his “community correction” (社区矫正), correctional measures that should not have been applied to him. The source also said that the Xijiao Prison administration has not returned to Lü the six diaries he kept in prison and the manuscript of a book he wrote.

Lü is the author of the History of Corruption in the Communist Party of China (中共贪官污吏), published in 2000, and many articles on topics including corruption, organized crime, and freedom of religion. Lü was detained on August 24, 2007, on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” and “leaking state secrets” and convicted on the first count on February 5, 2008. In ruling against Lü, the court cited 19 articles which he posted on overseas websites and a total of 470 words from those articles as evidence of his crime. In total, Lu wrote more than 226 articles and more than one million words.

Chinese magazine president and editor punished for citing historian

New York, August 19, 2011 (CPJ)–The demotion of a magazine president and suspension of an editor for an interview deemed critical of a Communist Party legend are the latest punitive steps taken by authorities against mainstream journalists in China, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Chen Zhong, president of the Guangzhou-based biweekly Nanfeng Chuang (Window on the South), was removed from his post, though not dismissed, and editor Zhao Lingmin was suspended during an internal meeting on Monday, international news reports said. These measures were related to Zhao’s July 25 interview with Taiwanese historian Tang Chi-hua, according to a letter the editor wrote to his colleagues that was published online by the Hong Kong University-based China Media Project.

Chinese internet activist Wang Lihong faces up to five years in prison for ‘creating a disturbance’

(Guardian)– Protesters gathered outside a Beijing court on Friday as a Chinese internet activist went on trial in a case the demonstrators see as a warning shot to other rights campaigners.

Wang Lihong faces up to five years in prison for “creating a disturbance”. She was detained in March amid a sweeping crackdown on the rights movement, apparently triggered by government fears of protests inspired by the Arab spring.

Dissident Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Speaks Out Using Twitter

Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and dissident, broke his silence on political topics on Tuesday for the first time since he was released from a prison in China nearly two months ago, describing in Twitter postings the treatment of business colleagues who had been detained with him and expressing support for two other incarcerated dissidents.

Mr. Ai, 54, formerly an outspoken critic of Chinese political and social restrictions, was arrested in April, held for three months by state security officials and later charged with tax evasion arising from his Shanghai art studio business. He was released after Chinese authorities said he had confessed and had been a model prisoner, but he was ordered not to leave Beijing without permission for a year. His tax evasion case is pending.

Revelations of accidents show China’s State censors lose their grip

BEIJING (The Ottawa Citizen)— Reports of a radiation leak on a nuclear submarine have led China to impose tight censorship on more than 1,000 Chinese-language websites, in a further sign that hardliners hold the upper hand in Beijing.

The defence ministry issued a curt denial that any accident had occurred but the Chinese public has lost faith in official pronouncements, after attempts to stop “negative” reporting of a recent rail disaster. Many citizens, hiding behind online anonymity, have accused the authorities of another coverup.

“Why not deny it earlier and why delete all the reports online?” one wrote.

RSF Condemns China on Media Coverage Restrictions of the High-speed Train Crash in Wenzhou

Reporters Without Borders condemns the severe restrictions that the Propaganda Department has imposed on media coverage of the high-speed train crash on 23 July in the southeastern city of Wenzhou, in which 39 people were killed.

Wang Qinglei, a producer with state-owned China Central Television (中國中央電視台), was fired on 27 July because of his investigative coverage of the crash. The previous day, his News 1+1 programme was suspended without advance warning and without explanation after it criticized a transport ministry spokesman.

Chinese journalists suspended for reporting train disaster

(Independent)– Two leading journalists have been suspended in China after their candid coverage of a train crash amid anger at the government for trying to muzzle critics of the country’s vaunted high-speed rail project.

One of the journalists was reportedly suspended for his reports on the crash on 23 July, when a high-speed train ploughed into the back of a stationary one, killing at least 40 and injuring more than 190. He had questioned whether China was putting too much emphasis on technological advance at the expense of safety.

The government has faced a wave of criticism over what caused the crash, and the delay by the country’s leaders in visiting the scene of the crash at the eastern city of Wenzhou.

Chinese TV producer Wang Qinglei suspended for crash reportage

New York, August 2, 2011 (CPJ)–The suspension of a state television producer for his coverage of last week’s fatal train crash sends a disturbing message to Chinese media outlets, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Information authorities intensified media restrictions at the end of last week in an effort to restrain the unusually probing media treatment of the July 23 disaster. But their initial propaganda directives were widely ignored and the railway ministry’s response to the crash launched a flood of online criticism.

Chinese journalists reported that China Central Television’s “24 Hours” news producer  was suspended for his July 26 coverage of the crash. The show questioned the cause of the collision, featured footage of the victims in hospitals, and asked whether the country was putting progress before the welfare of the people. It is not clear whether the journalist’s suspension amounted to a permanent dismissal.

Hong Kong Journalists’ Association Says Bad year of 2011: “The one-country element is increasingly overriding two systems”

Freedom of expression in Hong Kong, once home to a freewheeling and independent media, has deteriorated in the past year, a journalists’ group has said.

The Hong Kong Journalists’ Association said the year ending June 2011 had been a bad one for press freedom in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under an agreement aimed at protecting existing freedoms.

“The one-country element is increasingly overriding two systems in the way that Hong Kong is governed,” the HKJA said in a statement, referring to the “One Country, Two Systems” concept which underpinned the change of sovereignty.

Taiwan satellite carrier agrees to renew independent TV station’s contract

Without fuss or ceremony representatives of New Tang Dynasty Asia Pacific and Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) inked a new contract on June 27, assuring that NTD AP will continue broadcasting via satellite to Asia, including mainland China. Backers of the station say the new deal closes one chapter on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ongoing attempts to cut off NTD AP’s influence on the Chinese people.

The contract signing ended a controversy that began in early April when CHT abruptly informed NTD AP it would not renew the station’s contract to broadcast on CHT’s satellite—a refusal that NTD AP characterized as illegal under Taiwan telecommunications law. NTD, the global network to which NTD AP belongs, is a media partner of The Epoch Times.

RSF: Communist Party celebrates longevity, but Chinese activist says it has gone deaf

As China’s Communist Party celebrates the 90th anniversary of its founding today, beginning with a flag-raising ceremony in Tiananmen Square attended by 30,000 people, Reporters Without Borders insists that the toll from the crackdown of the past 90 days outweighs all the achievements of the past 90 years that the party has been proclaiming.

“The party’s efforts to present a festive image of national cohesion are designed to hide a disturbing deterioration in freedom of expression and information, especially during the last five months,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The ceremonies and political speeches must not be allowed to eclipse the wave of arrests of dissidents and human rights lawyers, and the censorship in Inner Mongolia.

Hong Kong Phoenix TV’s Famous Talker Dou Wentao ‘Disappeared’ Suddenly

Dou Wentao, a program host in the Phoenix TV, recently admitted that Phoenix TV is part of the system of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

He ‘disappeared’ after making the foregoing remarks. Phoenix denied it on its own TV for 4 consecutive days, emphasizing that it is only a listed Hong Kong company. The saying was criticized as biting the bullet. What system does Phoenix TV belong to then?

In Dou Wentao’s program, when chatting with guests Xu Zidong and Liang Wendao on the counterfeit issues in China, Dou suddenly said that Phoenix TV belongs to the CCP’s system. Xu then tried to help him by asking a question, but Dou did not seem to understand but continued to affirm his comments.

China’s ‘great firewall’ creator pelted with shoes

Chinese police are seeking a man who said he threw eggs and shoes at the architect of China’s “great firewall”, the world’s most sophisticated and extensive online censorship system.

The claims were cheered by many internet users, in a reflection of growing anger among them about increasingly stringent controls. Admirers showered the anonymous young man with flippant promises of everything from Nike trainers to replace his lost footwear, to iPads, sex and jobs.

The office of Fang Binxing – who is known as the father of the great firewall – denied the attack had happened, while Wuhan University in Hubei province, where the incident reportedly happened, told the Guardian it was not aware of it. No photographs have surfaced of the event.