Chinese Stranglehold

China's bloggers—33.4 million strong at last count, and growing fast—can be an unforgiving bunch when something displeases them. In recent weeks a Western English teacher in Shanghai whose blog, Chinabounder, described his sexual conquests of Chinese women drew the venom of netizens and prompted a frenzy of nationalist outrage, including castration threats and calls by a Shanghai Academy of Social...

Foreign newspapers will not be allowed to print on the mainland, a senior official has said, stressing the issue was "complicated". Yu Yongzhan, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication (Gapp), told the South China Morning Post that the administration had studied the possibility of allowing foreign newspapers to print on the mainland, but had decided against it at...

A Beijing court on Friday morning unexpectedly dismissed a state secrets charge against a researcher for the New York Times but sentenced him to three years in prison on a lesser, unrelated charge of fraud, the newspaper has reported. The verdict against researcher Zhao Yan, 44, spared him a prison sentence of 10 years or longer and also served as a blunt rebuke to the investigation by state...

Press freedom organisations have called for the release of Straits Times reporter Ching Cheong, who has being tried in a closed-door proceeding in Beijing. His trial on espionage charges began on August 15 and ended late that afternoon without an immediate verdict. "We have seen no evidence that Ching Cheong has committed a crime, and we call for his immediate release," Committee to Protect...

Legislation and a strong industry code of conduct are necessary to end the complicity of Western Internet companies in political censorship in China, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. China’s system of Internet censorship and surveillance, popularly known as the “Great Firewall,” is the most advanced in the world. In the 149-page report, “Race to the Bottom: Corporate Complicity...

The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the detention today of Hangzhou journalist Zan Aizong. Authorities placed Zan under a seven-day administrative detention this evening after warning him to stop writing about arrests and injuries involving Christians protesting the July 29 demolition of a church, according to the Independent Chinese PEN Center. “The government has launched a...

Richard Li, son of Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing, has bought a controlling stake in an esteemed Hong Kong newspaper, raising fears among journalists and lawmakers for its editorial independence. The Hong Kong Economic Journal, first published in 1973, is widely respected for its independent, critical and rational views and has a reputation as a paper of choice for the southern Chinese city's...

Amnesty International has accused Internet giants Yahoo, Microsoft and Google of violating human rights principles by cooperating with China's efforts to censor the Web and called on them to lobby for the release of jailed dissidents. The London-based human rights group also called on the Internet companies to oppose in public Chinese government requests that violate human rights standards. ALL...

Reporters Without Borders voiced dismay at the sentence of two years in prison and two years loss of civil rights handed down today by a court in Bijie in the southwestern province of Guizhou on journalist Li Yuanlong of the Bijie Ribao daily newspaper for “inciting subversion of the state” in articles he posted on the Internet. The organisation also condemned the way the authorities took Li’s...

Shanghai. July 11. INTERFAX-CHINA - A prominent Chinese newspaper has hit back against claims from Beijing that 'unbalanced reporting' on health issues is undermining the public's confidence in medical services. In a test of China's commitment to more openness and press freedom, The Southern Metropolitan Daily published a commentary in response to remarks made by the spokesman for the Ministry of...