Yoani Sánchez: How Pixels are Bringing Down the Wall of Censorship
On October 28, the Program on Liberation Technology at CDDRL, in partnership with the Association for Liberation Technology, the Center for Latin American St...
By: Stanford Center on Democracy, Development, and The Rule of Law
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Yoani Sánchez: How Pixels are Bringing Down the Wall of Censorship - Video
The Tipper Point Liberals Are the Agents of Censorship, Not Conservatives
Rush Limbaugh was attacked for attacking Sandra Fluke, and now Democrats are calling for the radio host to be censored. Yes, Rush used an ugly word, but so d...
By: fahri guner
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The Tipper Point Liberals Are the Agents of Censorship, Not Conservatives - Video
REUTERS/Will Burgess
Amnesty International volunteers tie cloth gags across their mouths during a protest in central Sydney in July, 2008. They demonstrated against what they claim is the Chinese government's censorship and surveillance of internet users in China.
A new study by the Center for International Media Assistance has found that, over the last five years, China's media restrictionshave begun to seriously affect the reportage and operations of international organizations.
As China's international political and economic power has grown, so has international coverage. The number of foreign correspondents in the country has nearly doubled since 2002. As a result, the Chinese government has moved to use its increased clout to control international opinion and reportage.
The Communist Party thinks its now powerful enough to intimidate [non-Chinese], from business people to diplomats to academics and journalists, and its willing to throw its weight around, veteran China reporter Paul Mooney said. It has learned that this often works and is willing to do anything to protect its image and stop negative news from being reported.
The Communist Party of China engages in four main strategies for influencing international media, according to the study:
The study found that, during the last six years, foriegn journalists have been assaulted while reporting on land protests in Zhejiang and an activists trial in Sichaun, among other incidents.
In addition, journalists have expereinced delays in visa processing or had their applications rejected directly based on the content of their reporting. In 2013, ten percent of respondents reported difficulty obtaining press accreditation because of their reporting.In 2012, al-Jazeera Englishs Melissa Chan and the New York Times Chris Buckley were denied visa renewal and forced to leave the country, in what the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China called the most extreme example of using journalist visas to censor and intimidate foreign correspondents in China.
The other major facet of the Chinese censorship enterprise is the use of economic benefits or repercussions for businesses and publications, based on their coverage.
A few examples from the study:
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Chinese Censorship Is Spreading All Over The World
NEW DELHI: BJP has alleged that the government has violated the right to free speech and resorted to censorship due to Congress' "Modi-phobia". Arun Jaitley, the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, in an article on Monday, hit out at the information and broadcasting ministry's advisory restricting channels from comparing the Prime Minister's speech with that of other political leaders and the government's directive to TV channels to restrict the maximum number of advertisements telecast in an hour.
"Any channel which shows the prime minister in competition would be liable for adverse action under the uplinking and downlinking regulations as also a penal action under section 20 of the Cable Network (Regulation) Act. This is an unconstitutional censorship order prompted by the Modi-phobia," Jaitley said.
He was referring to the ministry's October 21 circular saying it had come to its notice that "certain TV channels attempted to denigrate the Office of the Prime Minister of India by constantly trying to compare the speech of the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India with the speech of other political leaders on 15th August, 2013." Ninety minutes after the PM's address, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi had picked holes in it in his speech in a college in Kutch. The advisory stated that telecast of this kind of programme on a day when the nation was celebrating Independence Day was highly objectionable as Manmohan Singh spoke from Red Fort as prime minister of the country and not as leader of a political party and that to put him in an "artificial competition" with anyone was not appropriate.
Copyright 2013 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
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Narendra Modi-phobia leads to channel censorship: BJP
Social media giant Facebook has waded into one of Europe longest-running conflicts after it banned pages belonging to Turkey's largest pro-Kurdish political party.
The main page of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) came down on Tuesday, October 29, following several warnings about posting content related to a Kurdish militia fighting in northern Syria and an interview with one of its deputies in which she spoke out for political autonomy of Kurdistan.
Facebook policy on censorship and the recognition of the Kurdish identity proved to be worse than that of Turkey, the party said in a statement.
Long running conflict
Turkey has been in conflict with the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which began a war of insurrection in the 1980s seeking independence for swathes of Turkey's southeast, home to the majority of Turkey's estimated 14 million ethnic Kurds. That demand has since been downgraded to political autonomy for minorities. Still, the PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union, United States and Turkey.
The PKK declared a ceasefire in May as the Turkish government promised democratic reforms to recognize minority rights. Negotiations between the Turkish state and the PKK's jailed leader, Abdullah calan, are ongoing.
Facebook denies that the page came down over the use of Kurdistan -- a term that denotes a Kurdish homeland that encompasses territory in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
Its statement from Facebook's European office to Deutsche Welle reads in full:
The BDP page was not removed for mentioning the word 'Kurdistan'. It is true that several BDP pages have been taken down from Facebook. This is because these pages have repeatedly breached Facebook's rules. These rules allow users of Facebook to post political content, including controversial views, but prohibit the posting of content that shows support for internationally-recognised illegal terrorist organisations [including the PKK].
BDP spokesman Cem Bico says the main page came down following the group posting of an interview with BDP's MP Sebahat Tuncel calling for political autonomy for Kurdistan. There is no mention of armed groups.
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Facebook censorship of pro-Kurdish political party