China

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned the current unprecedented level of Internet filtering in China, which means the Google.com search engine can no longer be accessed in most provinces - although the censored Chinese version, Google.cn, is still accessible - and software designed in the United States to get round censorship now only works with great difficulty. The organisation...

The Board of the World Association of Newspapers has called for the release of all journalists jailed in China and condemned "the ongoing repression of all forms of freedom of expression in China." "More than 30 journalists remain behind bars in China. The vast majority of them have faced long periods of detention before even being charged. Most trials result in lengthy prison sentences, often...

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the release, on health grounds, of cyber-dissident and human rights activist Guo Qizhen, who was arrested at his home on 12 May 2006 and whose health, according to his lawyer, is worrying. The press freedom organisation also condemns the harassment of two other cyber-dissidents, Liu Shui and Xiong Zhongjun, who were forced by the police to leave the city...

SHANGHAI: It began with an impassioned, 5,000-word letter on one of China's most popular Internet bulletin boards, from a husband denouncing a student he suspected of carrying on an affair with his wife. Immediately, hundreds joined in the attack. "Let's use our keyboard and mouse in our hands as weapons," as one person wrote, "to chop out the heads of these adulterers, to pay for the sacrifice of...

The newspaper of Tuanjie, which means unity, celebrated its 50th anniversary on Friday. It was founded by China's non-communist party the Revolutionary Committee of Chinese Kuomintang. First published in 1956, the Tuanjie newspaper was shut down during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). It resumed publishing in 1980 and is sold overseas. The paper, which later developed into the voice of non...

Amnesty International is turning up the pressure on Yahoo! to change directions in China. Amnesty International USA, the American branch of the international human rights group, is sending an official to Yahoo’s annual shareholder meeting on May 25 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley. Anthony Cruz, the San Francisco-based Amnesty official who plans to speak at the meeting...

(RSF/IFEX) - The Public Security Bureau's formal refusal on 17 May 2006 to allow detained blogger and documentary filmmaker Hao Wu access to a lawyer on national security grounds is "absurd," Reporters Without Borders has said, as Hao began his fourth month in detention. "Hao's case is emblematic of the PSB's methods," the press freedom organisation said. "It is farcical to treat this blogger as a...

SAN DIEGO--Hu Shuli, editor of the Beijing-based Caijing Magazine, says without fail she is asked some version of the same question each time she travels abroad. "What is taboo for Chinese journalists?" "Foreign journalists pay too much attention to what is taboo in China" Hu says. "We don't pay attention to it. There are so many important news stories. If a story's important enough, we'll find a...

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the continued imprisonment of New York Times researcher Zhao Yan, who has been re-indicted on charges of fraud and revealing state secrets. The Times reported the reinstated charges today. Zhao has been imprisoned for 21 months without once appearing before a judge. Charges against Zhao were dropped in March prior to the visit to the United States of...

BEIJING -- A freelance writer was sentenced to 12 years in prison yesterday, receiving an unusually harsh penalty amid one of China's most severe media crackdowns since the 1980s. The sentencing of Yang Tianshui on subversion charges was one of a flurry of court actions yesterday against Chinese reporters. In Beijing, prosecutors filed a new indictment against a Chinese researcher for The New York...