Reporters Without Borders Unblocks Access To Censored Websites

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Reporters Without Borders Unblocks Access To Censored Websites

Posted by timothy on Thursday March 12, 2015 @02:15AM from the look-over-here-instead dept.

Mark Wilson writes Online censorship is rife. In many countries, notably China, citizens are prevented from accessing certain websites at the behest of their government. To help provide access to information and unbiased news, freedom of information organization Reporters Without Borders has set up mirrors to nine censored websites so they can be accessed from 11 countries that blocked them. As part of Operation Collateral Freedom, Reporters Without Borders is mirroring the likes of The Tibet Post International which is blocked in China, and Gooya News which is blocked in Iran. Mirrored sites are hosted on Amazon, Microsoft and Google servers which are unlikely to be blocked by a censoring country.

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Reporters without borders? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 02:18 · Score: 0

This is a fucking insult to Médecins Sans Frontières.
1. Re:Reporters without borders? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 02:27 · Score: 0
  
  Why?
2. Re:Reporters without borders? by erikkemperman · 2015-03-12 02:48 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Because Reporters Without Borders is an organization of considerably more dubious repute than the similarly named Doctors Without Borders. For one thing Otto Reich was involved, and besides State Dept there are very persistent accusations of ties with Western intelligence outfits. They were active in propaganda campaigns all over South America, Cuba in particular.
  
  --
  Gosh, thanks. That must be why the other ships call me Meatfucker -- GCU Grey Area (Eccentric)
3. Re:Reporters without borders? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 02:57 · Score: 0
  
  Don't be so coy. Many, many, many NGO's are suspected of basically just being CIA fronts. Basically, if you hear about an NGO that focuses on bringing "freedom" to every enemy of the U.S., while completely ignoring the oppressions of U.S. "friends," then you can pretty much rest assured that the CIA is back there funding it somehow.
4. Re:Reporters without borders? by erikkemperman · 2015-03-12 03:03 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Yeah, it's not actually that clear in this case: the Saudi regime for instance, most evil theocracy on the planet and great friends of the U.S., do not get a pass from these guys, as your theory would predict.
  And the U.S. themselves only rank around #30 on their Press Freedom Index, last time I checked. But that is compiled from reports by actual journalists in the field, IIRC, so might be more difficult for them to doctor.
  
  --
  Gosh, thanks. That must be why the other ships call me Meatfucker -- GCU Grey Area (Eccentric)
5. Re:Reporters without borders? by erikkemperman · 2015-03-12 03:13 · Score: 1
  
  Looks like U.S. Now rank #46 out of 180... source.
  
  --
  Gosh, thanks. That must be why the other ships call me Meatfucker -- GCU Grey Area (Eccentric)
6. Re:Reporters without borders? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 03:28 · Score: 0
  
  Cuba is not part of South America, you jackass. Go watch a map and come back when you know what you are gonna talk about.
  Oh wait... we are on Slashdot. "Come back when you know..." I must be new here!
7. Re:Reporters without borders? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 03:35 · Score: 0
  
  That list ranks Argentina higher than Chile, Brazil and Paraguay. That is the same Argentina where an attorney investigating the links between the President and certain individuals died mere hours before he was due to submit a report on his work.
8. Re:Reporters without borders? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 03:41 · Score: 0
  
  "He's an attorney, not a reporter. We'll let it slide."
9. Re:Reporters without borders? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 04:29 · Score: 0
  
  That is pretty much the stance of journalists yes.
  It's not uncommon that there is an outrage among journalists if one of them got killed when going to and reporting from a war torn area. They expect that they should be able to film people in a firefight without having to be at the same risk as every other civilian in the area.
10. Re:Reporters without borders? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 11:47 · Score: 0
  
  Go watch a map
  'Watch' a map? Herp Derp.
Uhhh by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 02:23 · Score: 0

Couldn't they just block the individual URLs, filter from search results, etc?
1. Re:Uhhh by jez9999 · 2015-03-12 04:03 · Score: 1
  
  In fact I thought the great firewall of China already did deep packet inspection and MITM attacks, so selectively blocking anything based on content should be pretty straightforward.
  
  --
  == Jez ==
  Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
Riiight... by crimson+tsunami · 2015-03-12 02:24 · Score: 1

Because there's no way China will block Google is there...
1. Re:Riiight... by BarbaraHudson · 2015-03-12 03:20 · Score: 1
  
  For those who don't see the invisible sarcasm tags in the parent post ... It would probably be a good pretext to block google, amazon, and microsoft.
  
  --
  "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Unbiased by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 02:28 · Score: 0

To help provide access to information and unbiased news, ...
Unbiased news - I am not familiar with that. Could someone suggests an actual unbiased news source?
1. Re:Unbiased by Jawnn · 2015-03-12 03:11 · Score: 1
  
  To help provide access to information and unbiased news, ...
  Unbiased news - I am not familiar with that. Could someone suggests an actual unbiased news source?
  Fox News, of course. They're "fair and balanced". Right?
2. Re:Unbiased by CaptainDork · 2015-03-12 08:18 · Score: 1
  
  Fox News?
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
So basically, they're breaking the law? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 02:34 · Score: 0

Or is U.S. copyright law the only worldwide law that applies to the internet?
1. Re:So basically, they're breaking the law? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 02:49 · Score: 0
  
  They might say they have an agreement (an org this prominent should really have this in place instead of playing Pirate Bay). If not, if they make sure all the ads are displayed properly, I think the lawsuit settlement could be reduced due to mitigating factors :)
Reporters who hate Chinese by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 02:40 · Score: -1

They game they are playing is so obvious
While China indeed is censoring Internet, China is definitely *NOT* the only country doing so. In fact, Saudi Arabia censors *MORE* websites than those which have been censored by the 'great firewall of China'
Why don't we see any criticism against Saudi Arabia?
Furthermore, in China the females are not barred from driving. In Saudi the laws strictly forbid the womenfolks from driving any vehicle
Why then there is no protest against the sexist laws in Saudi Arabia?
Could it be that Saudi Arabia is a 'friend" of the United States of America?
If those fuckers can be honest to themselves they ought to rename themselves as the "Reporters who hate Chinese"
1. Re:Reporters who hate Chinese by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 02:50 · Score: 1
  
  Why would a French organization help the US, when France has butted heads with the US on foreign policy for so long? And Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE are on the list, contrary to your assertion. Maybe not enough? Certainly they block more than just 2 sites, and China blocks more than just 3. Maybe you'd like to add more?
2. Re:Reporters who hate Chinese by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 02:55 · Score: -1
  
  Furthermore, in China the females are not barred from driving.
  I wish they'd bar Asian women from driving in my neighborhood. Let 'em go to China if they want to create havoc on the roads.
3. Re:Reporters who hate Chinese by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 03:10 · Score: 0
  
  >>
  If those fuckers can be honest to themselves they ought to rename themselves as the "Reporters who hate Chinese"
  Helping Chinese citizens access websites despite their government's censorship is "hating Chinese"? In what universe?
  Even if it's true that the group acts more against unallied governments than against allied governments (I have no idea if this allegation is true), why does that mean it's a bad thing that they are helping people in SOME countries with censorship (even if not ALL countries with censorship)?
  Seems like ought to rename yourself to "Anonymous Coward who hates Reporters Without Borders".
4. Re:Reporters who hate Chinese by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 05:38 · Score: 0
  
  China is the greatest! Five thousand years! Rule the world! My precious!
  Happy now, fuck tart?
5. Re:Reporters who hate Chinese by cusco · 2015-03-12 10:26 · Score: 1
  
  Reporters Without Borders is not a French group, it's mostly a creation of the US State Department. You're thinking of Doctors Without Borders, which actually does some worthwhile work.
  
  --
  "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Unbiased as defined by the West by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 02:44 · Score: 0

You gotta to understand the rules of the game, my friend
Drink the koolaid, drink a lot of it !
Repeat after me:

'News' from the Western media must be *UNBIASED*, while news from other news outlets, be it from China or Cuba or Russia or Iran must be 100% *BIASED*
1. Re:Unbiased as defined by the West by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 05:41 · Score: 0
  
  China is the greatest! Five thousand years! Zhong guo wan shui! Center of the world! Biggestest cunt-try in the world!
  Happy now, fuck tart?
This should not happen anymore ! Islamists sites by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 02:46 · Score: 0

forbidden islamists websites
A list of forbidden websites must be set !
fixed quote from TFS by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 03:13 · Score: 0

Mirrored sites are hosted on Amazon, Microsoft and Google servers which were, before this move, unlikely to be blocked by a censoring country.
FTFThem.
Oh you naive person you.... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 03:16 · Score: 1, Insightful

Mirrored sites are hosted on Amazon, Microsoft and Google servers which are unlikely to be blocked by a censoring country.
LOL ROTFLOL oh you poor naive person, you.
W00Tm 7p by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 03:16 · Score: -1

Baby...don't fear the party in street Out of business Knows that ever leaving the play session and 6oin in their parting distributions
Default-deny by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 03:23 · Score: 0

I wonder when China or some other country is going to get so fed up with playing whack-a-mole with these banned websites that they decide to go to a default-deny model, where no one in the country can access any web page unless the web page is specifically allowed by the censors.
UK = No Moral High ground by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 03:35 · Score: 1

"The professor drew an analogy between the Reporters Without Borders initiative and the news that websites listing proxies for the file-sharing site Pirate Bay had been blocked in the UK."
First world problems. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 03:59 · Score: 0

Could they maybe unblock TPB in the UK?
you in53nsitive clod! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 05:23 · Score: -1

As those non gay, I have a life to inventing excuses Woot Bring your own posts. Therefore is dying.Things working 0n various Subscribers. Please Is part of the
Unlike Slashdot... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-03-12 06:44 · Score: 0

... where idiotic, brainwashed media-loving cretins like to CENSOR anything that disagrees with the lies they've been taught by JEWS all their lives...
www.nazigassings.com
www.codoh.com