Monday, September 26, 2005
Crack Down: China Silencing Cyber Dissidents
Jane Macartney reporting from Beijing for the Times of London writes that China is actively moving to shut down unregulated access to the internet in a massive attempt to curb cyber dissidence. The Times quoted Chinese state media as stating that only "healthy and civilised news and information that is beneficial to the quality of the nation" would be permitted. "State security" and the "public interest" were cited as the reasons for the new regulations banning the dissemination of critical news:
These regulations are vague enough to frighten anyone contemplating criticizing the authorities. Can a centralized government control the information available to more than 100 million people? The war for access and cyberliberties continues to escalate. Two fronts are under attack: first the regulation of critical websites, shutting down the sources information; second, the attempt to limit and regulate access by shutting down the internet cafes that allowed anonymous access to the web, for both posting and reading of information not sanctioned by the government.The rules, issued by the Ministry of Information, Industry and the State Council, China's Cabinet, would "standardise the management of news and information". The rules take immediate effect.
The latest move in a long campaign to restrict how Chinese have access to the internet hinted at the eagerness of the Communist Party to ensure political and moral rectitude among a growing number of internet users. This has surpassed 100 million, the world's largest after the US.
In the campaign to curb dissent, thousands of caber cafes, the main entry to the web for many Chinese unable to afford a computer, have been closed. In Shanghai, authorities have installed surveillance cameras and require visitors to incabnet cafes to register using identity cards.
