Censorship in China
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April 21, 2010
Filed under National/World, News
We use the Internet to get news from all over the World or to express ourselves. We have blogs where we not only write about our daily life but also our opinion on events, such as elections or new laws that are passed. The source of the Internet is opening ranged and answers almost every question we have.
It’s nothing like that in China. Public Security minister Zhu Entao passed the first censorship law in December 1997. Fines up to 15,000 Yuan (about 2200$) could be given for ‘defaming government agencies,’ ’splitting the nation,’ and leaking ‘state secrets’.
Also no sexual or violent materials are allowed. No “injuring the reputation of state organs” is allowed either. That basically means no Chinese person can say anything against the government or give their opinion.
The Chinese government blocks web pages like the Chinese Wikepedia, BBC News, Facebook and Twitter and the censorship influences the people in China everyday.
Not only the Internet but also most radio and television stations are under governmental control. No unfiltered information reaches the Chinese people.
We often rely on information from the media. Different newspapers and news channels give us information from different viewpoints. Therefore we are able to process the information given to us and build our own opinion from it.
This is what the government in China tries to prevent. Information is given from one viewpoint and doesn’t allow critical thinking.
Article 6 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders says
“Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others [...] freely to publish, impart to disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms [as well as] to study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and appropriate means, to draw attention to those matters.”
Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights organization, reports on many incidents in which people have been arrested for apparent “anti-governmental” activities.
A 36-year-old shopkeeper, Lou Yongzhong, was sentenced to three years in prison because he published his own opinion on the Internet. He wrote that “Human rights and democracy aren’t something that the government would like everybody to discuss because it is thought to be anti-government, unpatriotic. But I believe that a patriot must first of all try to uphold human rights and democracy.”
Not only the people in China are influenced by the governmental censorship but also business all over the world. In the past, Google had a conflict with the Chinese government because a third party accessed Gmail accounts of advocates of human rights in China. On their blog, Google states that they launched Google.com in January 2006 to give the people in China the opportunity to get information in a more open Internet. With ongoing debates Google now stated that they would reconsider the provided Google service in China, even if that means to remove Google completely.
The Chinese government, however, not only tries to censor the Chinese people, but also holds back information from getting outside. Journalists often need permission to visit China. Often they are watched by governmental workers and are harassed if they want to cover a delicate topic.
The webpage of The Council on Foreign Relationships reported that “180 foreign correspondents were detained, harassed, or attacked in China in 2007 despite the nominally relaxed regulations.”
China now is the winner in the category of the most imprisoned journalists for the ninth time in a row. If you want more information on the censorship in China or even decide to take action you can visit http://www.amnestyusa.org .
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