China Net cops close blog
p2p news / p2pnet: Communist Chinese authorities are blocking access to a blog nominated for a key German award and written by a prominent critic of the communist regime, says Radio Free Asia.
"Wang Yi’s Microphone, was nominated for two categories in the Best of Blog (BOB) Awards sponsored by German radio station Deutsche Welle," says the story, quoting the blog’s author, Wang Yi, As sayihng:
"Initially I set up my blog as a place to collect together all my writings so they could all be seen in one place. Then it gradually turned into a news blog, posting the sorts of articles that could not be published on other Web sites, on sensitive subjects like human rights. I was able to publish them on my blog instead."
However, China’s Net police have been blocking access to the blog for six months, Wang, teaches at Chengdu University in the southwestern province of Sichuan, told Radio Free Asia. "No sooner do I find a way around the filters, than they manage to block it again,”.
The story says Wang used a series of different servers to host his blog, "repeatedly changing his domain name in an attempt to elude the official censors," but, "The fact that my non-existent blog has been nominated for an award is a biting indictment and a mockery of the current situation in Chinese cyberspace.
“The best thing about this award is that it’s a slap in the face for those who police the Internet in China.”>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
China Closes Dissident Blog Nominated for Award
Original reporting in Mandarin by Ke Hua – Radio Free Asia
Wang said he took the name for his blog from a song lyric that goes: “Who has taken my microphone away? Never mind. I still have my voice.”
“Of course it matters that the microphone has been taken away. But vocal chords are part of one’s body. And the right to speak is an inalienable one; one which is laid down in black and white in China’s constitution.”
Human rights issues sensitive
One of the most sensitive subjects on Wang’s blog was the recent campaign by villagers in Taishi village, Guangdong province, to remove their elected village chief amid allegations of corruption in a property deal involving villagers’ land.
Prominent Beijing-based independent commentator Liu Xiaobo said the nomination of Wang’s blog – in both the Best Blog Chinese and Reporters Without Borders Special Award categories – was highly significant.
“He is one of China’s most important rights activists on the Internet at the moment,” Liu said.
“Not only does he campaign for the rights of the oppressed, he also helps to protect freedoms on the Internet itself. He has made a huge contribution to the fight for freedom of expression online, and hosted a number of online petitions,” he said.
The relative technical simplicity and low cost of blogs – many blogging service providers offer free blog space – are powerful motivators in getting people to write online, and are rapidly taking off in China, experts say.
Chinese bloggers write on subjects ranging from daily diary entries of personal trivia and family news, to top-flight political commentary and on-the-spot citizen journalism.
Tightly controlled news
Some are written by mainstream journalists who wish to publish the story they see behind the official version of events, which is strictly controlled by China’s Communist Party Central Propaganda Department.
But increasingly sophisticated filtering software supplied by Western technology companies, makes it possible for China’s Web police to block online content containing material the government considers subversive.
Among the list of words or phrases currently censored by Internet service providers are “democracy,” “human rights,” “Tibet independence,” and “June 4, 1989.”
China has recently required independently hosted bloggers to complete a lengthy and costly registration process in which they submit their personal details to the authorities, and closed prominent several key online discussion forums which reported sensitive material.
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If you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent website blocking outside of China.
Download it here and feel free to copy the zip and host it yourself so others can download it.
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Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
November 3rd, 2005 at 4:48 pm
I Zip File of the blog can be distributed around the world and be minimally affected by censorship firewall and such. Call the file, ”
Who_has_taken_my_microphone_away_031105.zip ” if it is distributed on the 3rd of November of 05. The name of the file reflects the date it was updated. This way, the net can see censorship as damage and route around it.