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markj · Joined: 30 Sep 2007 Posts: 11

Maybe this is a stupid question, but Is there internet censorship in Hong Kong?

Serious_Fun · Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 1171 Location: terra incognita

malu · Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 1344 Location: Sunny Java

Sorry to intrude, guys, but recently in my gulag on the other side of the river we have been experiencing lots of problems with the Great Firewall.

Have any HK users noticed this recently? For instance doing a search with google or any of the other big search engines here on the string 'c.hina s.pring f.estival 2008' (remove the dots please!) gets a blank result.

Charlesm_888 · Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 48 Location: Hong Kong

No problems here. Only One of the Two Systems has the Great Firewall.

Serious_Fun · Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 1171 Location: terra incognita

Just a scary heads-up: Some people have reported that a few sites have been blocked here in HK.

I tried to visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ yesterday and it was blocked. It works now. (I use PCCW's Netvigator service.)

(sigh) The Olympic Games are a good excuse for the securocrats to move their agenda forward.

once again · Joined: 27 Jan 2003 Posts: 815

What sites have been blocked? I have never found sites to be blocked in HK. It is worrying if it has started.

Serious_Fun · Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 1171 Location: terra incognita

Horizontal Hero · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:53 am Post subject:

I never heard of not the south china morning post. (I live in the sticks of HK). It's interesting!

The SCMP has far more critical stuff than any mainland paper - mainland journalism is a contradiction in terms - ranked 163rd out of 168 media in the world by the evil, anti-Chinese reporters Without Borders. At least they are in a group with their bed buddies North Korea and Burma, who finished just below them on the list.

Who is that senior post writer that keeps bashing the west in every chance he gets - is it Peter Li? Always just under the letters column. He never gets more than two sentences into a story without mentioning "the west", and it's always something bad. Never heard him say anything good, and seems to think that American neo-cons and "the west" are the same thing.

Serious_Fun · Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 1171 Location: terra incognita

YellowHair · Joined: 29 Apr 2006 Posts: 41 Location: HK

S_F,

I can access that site from Hong Kong.

YH

Serious_Fun · Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 1171 Location: terra incognita

dandan · Joined: 25 Jun 2003 Posts: 183 Location: Hong Kong

I can't access it either which probably means that it's blocked by the ISP. I guess you're using Netvigator also (and so were the wireless hotspots).

I've never seen any evidence to suggest that the HK Government is involved in blocking sites but PCCW in particular have been accused of blocking sites for commercial reasons, for example sites that are critical of PCCW or to please governments where they do (or hope to do) business, e.g. Pakistan.

Of course the HK government is pretty tight with the Li's so there's nothing to say they couldn't have a quiet word with Little Dick and get a site blocked on Netvigator but it would still be available through other ISPs and if it was obviously political it would probably do more harm than good as we still have a (relatively) free press and it would most likely be spotted. The SCMP wouldn't touch the story of course, but the local press would make a big issue of it.