Chinese Stranglehold

Yahoo executives feel "horrible" about political arrests of Internet users in China but believe it's better to operate in that market and cooperate with authorities than not be there at all, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang said on Wednesday. "It is more important for us to participate, not only for economic reasons, but to be able to [help shape where the industry is going]," Yang said during a...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it had no involvement in the case of a Chinese journalist charged with sending subversive e-mails abroad under a pseudonym using a Hotmail account. The indictment of Li Yuanlong, a 45-year-old reporter, follows accusations that Internet giant Yahoo Inc. provided evidence to Chinese authorities that led to the imprisonment of two journalists....

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has accused Chinese authorities of a "brutal vendetta" against independent journalism and media following the destruction of the offices of one of its leading critics. ASSAULTED: A picture of Chinese newspaper Epoch Times Chief Technical Officer Li Yuan, who demonstrators say was attacked in his home at Atlanta, US, , is shown during a...

In a letter circulated to journalists in mid-February, a group of former senior Chinese officials called on the Beijing government to ease its rigid media censorship, particularly of political news and commentary. The appeal is another sign of a broader debate in Chinese ruling circles on how to deal with the extreme tensions being generated by the country’s deepening social inequality. Written on...

Search giant Google is storing the search records for its recently launched Chinese site Google.cn outside the country in an effort to keep the Chinese government from demanding the files. "We didn’t want to be in the position of having to hand over these kinds of records to the government," said Peter Norvig, Google’s director of research, at a panel discussion at Santa Clara University in...

LI DATONG, the sacked editor of one of China's most influential investigative newspapers, laughed as he explained why the closure and pending reopening of the weekly Bingdian ( Freezing Point) added up to an incredible victory, despite his dismissal. While the fight was not over yet, he sensed a watershed. "This is a rare occurrence," he said. "It (the reopening of an axed newspaper) has never...

BEIJING – At 5 p.m. on Jan. 24, Li Datong's status went into a deep chill. Mr. Li, a Tiananmen protest veteran and a rare crusading editor still allowed to work, learned that "Freezing Point," his weekly magazine, had been closed. The proximate reason: a lengthy article smashing official history of the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, when a peasant cult killed more than 230 foreigners in a spasm of...

China has finally freed a journalist after 16 years of imprisonment left him mentally impaired after being tortured and held for long periods in solitary confinement. Yu Dongyue, then 23, was jailed for splattering paint on a portrait of Mao Zedong during the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. MAO@TIANANMEN: The portrait of Mao Zedong looms over student protestors at Tiananmen Square...

SHANGHAI, Feb. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- China's largest city, Shanghai, will hold the media accountable for carrying misleading commercials in its latest move to crack down on fraudulent advertisements, a government spokesperson said. Advertisers as well as publishers of fraudulent ads will face more severe penalties in the city's forthcoming campaign to better regulate the market and improve the overall...

NEW YORK, 23 February 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The report is considered groundbreaking in its precise and detailed description of the instruments of censorship in a rapidly changing Chinese society. It shows how a system of control that originated under classic totalitarian conditions is being adjusted, refined, and modernized to meet the agenda of the current Chinese leadership -- market economy with...