Citizen Journalism Combating Chinese Censorship

teh_commodore writes to tell us that Breitbart has a look at how Citizen Journalism is shining a whole new light on China. "Recognizing the threat of China's growing online community, Chinese President Hu Jintao called in January for the Internet to be 'purified', and the government has since launched a number of online crackdowns. [...] 'One cannot truly say that the Internet in China is becoming more and more free, because at the same time as the development of citizen journalists, the government finds ways of blocking or censoring content,' Pain said."

Comments

Hot Button Words

[Azuma Hazuki]

Whenever I hear people in "dear leader" positions throwing around words like purify, patriotism, freedom, etc, it makes me cringe. This is doublespeak; "purify" means "purge."

Re:Hot Button Words

[beyondkaoru]

aye, brothers. we must rally our men to combat the numerous evils which threaten our home, the (imperium|usa|middle kingdom). there can be no rest until the (heretics and mutants|dissenters|dissenters) have been purged, and we may stand united to praise the (emperor|president|chairman)!

but we must not merely look within to find the enemy; there is, too, the enemy without: these (xenos|muslims|capitalists)... the more i look at them, the more i come to know them, the more i come to hate them. i hate them not because they are different, but because they are not capable of pure, (human|american|maoist) (hatred|patriotism|nationalism).*

in the grim (future|present) of the (41st millenium|21st century), there can be only war**!

*ironically, all three benefit greatly from their enemies without; the adeptus mechanicus researches c'tan tech, the usa benefits from middle-eastern oil, china benefits from trade and manufacture.
**on drugs/terror/whatever in the us. may vary elsewhere.

ok, that was totally offtopic, but fun to type.

Re:How Is This News For Nerds??

[mrjb]

There's not really any tech angle here. You've never heard of The Great Firewall of China, I suppose.

Re:China IS getting more free.

[MightyMartian]

Censorship is a tool used when you're losing control.

That is an incredibly absurd thing to say. Censorship has been practiced in many societies for thousands of years. Censorship is about maintaining control. There have always been ways around censorship, but it works because the vast majority of people either do not know to circumvent it or are too frightened of the consequences to try.

The Chinese Communists have been using censorship since the very beginning, so it's rather silly to state "It's a sign they're losing control", when it is simply the way things are done in China. The difference is now that circumventing that censorship is a good deal easier. It is forcing the Chinese government to be more responsive to the needs of people. It's a pity that these tools hadn't been available during truly tragic periods of recent Chinese history (The Great Leap Forward).

Assistance from the West

[NJVil]

Perhaps Google, Yahoo, and other bastions of the Internet will get right on this if they're asked nicely. They've got a proven track record when it comes to assisting oppressive governments.

Re:Have any of you even been to China?

[ChrisA90278]

Here in the US if you want to sell hot dogs you need about a hundred government permits. There are forms and taxes and fees just to hire the guy to run the pushcart and there is a business license and health inspectors and so on and so on. the goernment even tells you how long you can keep a hot dog after you heat it and how and where is get rid of the hot dogs you can't sell. Every stage of a hot dog vending in the US is regulated and controled by the government. In China if you want to sell hot dogs all you need is are some hot dogs. If you want to sell a picture of Micky Mouse on a tee shirt all you need is some ink and tee shirts, no need to ask Disney first I think much of China works this way. People just do what they want and if they don't cause any trouble are left alone. I won't argue it this is a good thing or bad. Maybe it's best to give up some freedom so we can eat USDA inspected hot dogs.

But the governments are different. In the US the leaders know and accept that they will leave office one day and they are pretty sure the system of government will continue on. In China the government took power and holds power by force and the goal of the leadership is to remain in office for life.

So in some way the people in China are more free. They can do as they
like as long is that is no threat the government.

Interesting site

[WindBourne]

They are blocking on chinese only. By not blocking english, then they will encourage a number of chinese to learn it or some other language.