Slashdot Mirror
China - We Don't Censor the Internet
kaufmanmoore writes "A Chinese government official at a United Nations summit in Athens on internet governance has claimed that no Net censorship exists at all in China. The article includes an exchange by a Chinese government official and a BBC reporter over the blocking of the BBC in China." From the article: "I don't think we should be using different standards to judge China. In China, we don't have software blocking Internet sites. Sometimes we have trouble accessing them. But that's a different problem. I know that some colleagues listen to the BBC in their offices from the Webcast. And I've heard people say that the BBC is not available in China or that it's blocked. I'm sure I don't know why people say this kind of thing. We do not have restrictions at all."
I think just using the CN in a google search must not be returning the same results, but there's no way for me to test this.
& btnG=%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87&ie=UTF-8 &oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw
For instance - plug in the term censorship in the same link that the AC used -
http://www.google.cn/search?hl=zh-CN&q=censorship
I saw links to Wiki with full articles on censorship in the ROC. Would this work if searched while located in Bejing or anywhere else in the ROC? My guess is no. Other hardware filters are in place.
"Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair" - George Washington
Despite the fact that many outside of China know that it indeed does exist, this piece of news is more likely intended for those within China.
No kidding. I've met people recently from China and they don't know where we all get off on these things. They claim there are any number of small newspapers and such all over the place. They also think we tend to make a bigger deal of things than we ought and their country is just fine thank you very much.
Of course, if you grew up never knowing otherwise or thinking outside the box someone has constructed around you, you may be so indoctrinated. Same way Brits appear indoctrinated that they must read in the Sun or News of the World what trollop David Beckham is frollicking around Spain with or Americans feel the overwhelming urge to tell others how they ought to live and behave.
Those friends and colleagues listening to the BBC webcast, since we don't know otherwise, may be checking for new words or topics they need to add to their filters.
However you shake it up, China is in for a bit of adjustment when the 2008 Olympics bring people from all over the world into China where they will be expecting access to news and media as they had at home. Perhaps China has already thought of this and is constructing exclusion zones...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Tien Anmen Google Images
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
I found a source on Google News:
I worked in a repair shop with some old timers during the early 80's. One day,
a customer brought in a set that didn't work on the SW bands. The old-timer in
the shop found a snipped coil and had the set fixed in a matter of minutes.
I asked him how he found the problem so fast. He told me he had disabled the SW
bands in that same set 40 years earlier! He further explained that all the
repair shops had been under government directive to disable SW reception in any
set brought in (by a foreign national) for repair. Our government apparently
thought it could minimize espionage in this manner.
In the following couple of years, I fixed no less than a dozen sets that had
been disabled in the same manner. Several of those still had the "serviced by"
sticker from the same shop on the back. And I have a few in my collection that
have been fixed for the same ailment.
Terry