Remember when internet visionaries were assuring us that online freedom of speech was unstoppable? The Chinese government didn't get the memo:

• 19 May 2006, 17:02 From: Fan Tao, deputy director of the Beijing Internet Information
Administrative Bureau: Please do not refer to the film “Summer Palace,” a participant in the Cannes Film Festival official competition, without obtaining the censor’s approval. You are also asked not to post articles or comments on this subject and not to interview actors who appeared in the film. You are asked not to report or reproduce any information about the Cannes Film Festival that mentions the film. Finally, do not post any article on this subject in discussion forums, blogs or comments.

• 28 June 2006, 18:40 From: Chen Hua, deputy director of the Beijing Internet Information
Administrative Bureau: Regarding the explosion at a mine belonging to the Fuxin mining group in Wulong (in the northeastern province of Liaoning), please only use articles from Xinhua and Liaoning News. Regarding the draft law on the management of crisis situations [which, inter alia, steps up press censorship], please use the Xinhua and People’s Daily articles and nothing else. Please reinforce monitoring of comments, discussion forums and blogs and immediately remove any violent or obscene message. Regarding the issue of unequal income distribution, please use articles from the Central Committee’s main information mouthpieces and nothing else. Please do not spread rumours about this matter or conduct online polls. Please reinforce monitoring of comments, discussion forums and blogs and immediately block any violent or obscene message.

There are many, many more examples in this report from Reporters Without Borders. Men and women in China are risking their liberty and their lives to tell this story. So take a look. Know what China is.

H/T: to my kid.

This entry was posted by Michael Reynolds, on Friday, October 12, 2007. You can leave your response.