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China Blocks NYT Over Critical Article

Posted by timothy on from the modern-and-progressive dept.

Taco Cowboy writes "The New York Times has become the latest target of Chinese censorship. Censors of the People's Republic of China, in an almost unheard of, truly remarkable feat of neck-breaking speed, blocked the (paywalled) website of the New York Times, all because of one news article. That particular article was about the enormous wealth of the family members of a very prominent figure in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — Chinese Premier Wen Jia Bao. The wealth in question totals some USD 2.7 billion. " (Also covered at the BBC.)

9 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. So what ? by boorack · · Score: 1, Informative

    Iranian PressTV has been recently banned from UK. Does West really differ so much from China in this regard ?

    1. Re:So what ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes. Iranian Press TV was taken down in the EU due to sanctions on Iran due to their human rights violations. And Iranian Press TV is a state run media, meaning it is part of the same government that is committing human rights abuses.

      In contrast, the New York Times is not state owned media nor have its owners been accused of human rights abuses. The banning of Iranian Press TV is ethical and justified. The censorship of the New York Times is not.

    2. Re:So what ? by will_die · · Score: 5, Informative

      Lets get the facts right on Press TV, there were not banned their right to broadcast was pulled. No site was blocked or anything of that nature just no broadcasting.
      As for the reason of their right to broadcast being pulled was because they company in the UK did not have decision or editorial rights. The company was told if they wanted to broadcast as a UK company they had to have editorial decisions made in the UK, otherwise it was foreign company wanting to broadcast in the UK and had to get other permissions and pay other fees.

      Also this is the UK they have a long and current history of blocking thoughts and discussions that made people upset.

    3. Re:So what ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, it does. How incredibly stupid are you?

      The New York Times is not paywalled, by the way. You don't even have to clean your cookies, only remove a parameter from the query string. It's a paywall for grandmas.

    4. Re:So what ? by History's+Coming+To · · Score: 5, Informative

      Nonsense. It's freely available here: http://www.presstv.ir/ (works for me, I'm in the UK). What they've done is restrict companies who want to re-broadcast it. The original is still there and still accessible.

      --
      Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
  2. Re:UK carries out secret trials and imprisonment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hayes failed to attend court for refusing to pay his taxes and a warrent was issued for his arrest. He was arrested and tried in a Magistrates Court (in public), not a 'secret court without a Jury'.

    There is no story here. By all accounts he is a bit of a nutcase.

  3. Re:UK carries out secret trials and imprisonment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nice fairy tale. He was committed to prison for 21 days for refusing to pay his council tax (or more likely for ignoring a court order to pay his tax). There was no judge or jury because it was a magistrate's court. And it ignores the lengthy process that leads up to imprisonment:

    Can I be sent to prison for not paying my Council Tax?

    In very rare cases your local Council may apply to the Magistrates' Court for a warrant committing you to prison in the event of non payment of Council Tax. The Council will only ever take this step when all other efforts have failed. This would include failed bailiff visits.

    Before issuing a warrant of commitment the court must hold a 'means enquiry' and you must be present. You will be sent a Summons to appear. If you fail to answer to the Summons the Council will, in most cases, request that a warrant for arrest be granted. Depending on the circumstances this will be with or without bail. When you attend a 'means enquiry' you will be required to complete a very simple Income & Expenditure Calculation so that the Magistrate is able to agree an affordable level of re-payment.

    A Warrant of Commitment will only be issued if the court is satisfied that the failure to pay is the result of wilful refusal or culpable neglect. This would not be the case if you cannot afford the debt. The maximum period of imprisonment is three months.

    A recent Human Rights Case from the European Court that confirms that local authorities must look at all other available options before considering imprisonment.

  4. Re:Which way does the Copyright Brigade go on this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    So what is stopping the NY Times of *altering* the content rights and making that report something like Public Domain and then power-posting it to 100 Chinese news agencies?

    They've pretty much done that, more or less. They released a PDF translating the article to Chinese. This was obviously meant for people to disseminate without having to worry about getting through the Great Firewall to directly access the NYT website (even though it is easy with a VPN).

  5. Link to the NYT article (no paywall) by xded · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of-wen-jiabao-holds-a-hidden-fortune-in-china.html?pagewanted=all