15 Dec 2009 | Index Index, minipost, News
China has banned individuals from registering internet domain names and launched a review of millions of existing personal websites in the toughest government censorship drive so far on the internet reports the Financial Times. China has banned the registration of domains for personal use unless they are operated by licensed businesses or state-approved organisations. It is part of the government’s “fight against pornographic websites” according the the official China Daily. Read more here
10 Dec 2009 | Index Index, minipost, News
China has closed one of the country’s largest file-sharing sites. The State Administration of Radio Film and Television said the site BTChina did not have a license to distribute audio and video content. Another popular website, the Chinese translation cooperative Yeeyan, has stopped publishing in recent days. The government says the main targets are pornography, online gambling and other sites deemed harmful to society. Critics, however, say that often acts as cover for detecting and blocking sensitive political content. Read more here
9 Dec 2009 | Index Index, minipost, News
Police in China have recommended that prominent dissident Liu Xiaobo be formally charged with subversion. He has been held in jail for over a year without charges and previously served 20 months for his part in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. The author has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese government for many years and was eventually arrested in December 2008 after creating the Charter 08 petition, a manifesto urging political reform. Read more here
19 Nov 2009 | Index Index, minipost
On 16 November, US President Barack Obama’s first serious engagement with the Chinese people ran afoul of China’s restrictions on broadcasting. He addressed the youth of Shanghai in a so-called “town hall” meeting, but it was not shown on national television and relayed only in poor quality on the internet. Obama’s call for China to adopt what he termed “universal rights” also went unreported in the Chinese media. China maintained its block on Facebook, but the meeting was available for viewing on the White House website. (BBC, Financial Times)
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