State Control

New York, December 28, 2005–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Thursday's court decision upholding the conviction of Internet writer Zheng Yichun on charges of "inciting subversion" for his articles criticizing the government. The Liaoning Supreme People's Court rejected Zheng's appeal, making it more likely that he will serve a prison term of seven years. "Zheng has done nothing more...

BEIJING - A Straits Times reporter arrested in China on charges of spying will have his case referred to the prosecution department within days, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang said on Wednesday. Mr Tsang had brought up the case of Ching Cheong, who was based in Hong Kong, during meetings in Beijing with President Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. Mr Ching, 56, was first detained in April in...

WHEN a dozen Chinese newspapers recently ran stories about a rash of sadistic cat killings in Shanghai by a perverse postgraduate student, it was another quiet triumph for a young man in Beijing called Zhao Jing. To a widening blog readership in China and abroad, Zhao is better known by the pseudonym Anti. As well as indicating an oppositionist stance in English, it also strikes a dissident note...

EC VICE president Margot Wallstroem has accused Microsoft, Yahoo and Google of having flexible morals when it comes to dealing with China. Writing in her bog, Wallstroem criticised the three companies for helping China silence its domestic critics. She said that Vole, Yahoo and Google were matching their morals to suit new markets and had words such as "ethics" and "corporate social responsibility...

As Chinese Prime Minister Wen continued a four-day visit to France that began yesterday, press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said it has confirmed that journalist Shi Tao, who is serving a 10-year-prison sentence, is having to do forced labour and he is suffering from respiratory problems and a skin inflammation. Shi, who was convicted of "illegally divulging state secrets abroad"...

The impressive growth of the Internet in China is matched by the authorities’ energetic attempts to monitor, censor and repress Internet activity, with tough laws, jailing cyber-dissidents, blocking access to websites, monitoring online forums and shutting down cybercafés, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). MONITORED: There are just five backbones or hubs through which all traffic must...

China now has more than 100 million Internet users. The number of netizens in China rose to 103 million by late June this year, according to official figures. Mao Qian, head of Optical Telecommunications Committee of China Telecommunications Society, said the statistitcs were from a report that was recently completed based on the 16th survey into the development of the Internet in China. NET...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the censorship of pro-democracy writer Wang Yi’s blog ( http://zhivago.tianyablog.com), which was closed down just days after it was nominated for the "freedom of expression" category in a blog contest ( www.thebobs.de) being organised by the German radio station Deutsche Welle. "We call for the immediate reopening of this blog and we point out that the...

HONG KONG–The Chinese authorities have blocked access to a personal Web log, or blog, written by a prominent critic of the communist regime after it was nominated for a key award. Wang Yi’s Microphone, was nominated for two categories in the Best of Blog (BOB) Awards sponsored by German radio station Deutsche Welle. "Initially I set up my blog as a place to collect together all my writings so they...

One of the standard arguments for the superiority of "free enterprise" is that in the wake of economic freedom -- defined as the freedom of capital to enrich itself -- political and other freedoms follow in its wake. There are a few problems with this argument: first, it is often framed in the broad sweep of history, looking ahead at decades or even centuries. Most people don’t have centuries or...