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[igotthisguitar]

Internet police state
This week Google agreed to let China -- where cheerful cartoon icons Jingjing and Chacha watch over people's surfing habits -- censor Web pages the government doesn't like.

GEOFFREY YORK discovers that The Globe and Mail's site is among them

GEOFFREY YORK
Saturday, January 28, 2006


BEIJING -- When you live in China, you soon become conscious of a shadowy presence that watches over you, monitoring everything you see and do on the computer screen and the television.

George Orwell called it Big Brother. The Chinese authorities prefer a cute and cheerful name, so they've invented two cartoon figures called Jingjing and Chacha that float merrily on your computer screen.

But they have the same Orwellian task: to keep you under constant surveillance to ensure that you don't look at anything unauthorized or subversive.

[igotthisguitar]

The 15 enemies of the Internet and other countries to watch

Reporters Without Borders marks the World Summit on the Information Society by presenting 15 countries that are ��enemies of the Internet�� and pointing to a dozen others whose attitude to it is worrying.

The 15 ��enemies�� are the countries that crack down hardest on the Internet, censoring independent news sites and opposition publications, monitoring the Web to stifle dissident voices, and harassing, intimidating and sometimes imprisoning Internet users and bloggers who deviate from the regime��s official line.

The ��countries to watch�� do not have much in common with the "enemies of the Internet."

The plight of a Chinese Internet user, who risks prison by mentioning human rights in an online forum, does not compare with the situation of a user in France or the United States. Yet many countries that have so far respected online freedom seem these days to want to control the Internet more.

Their often laudable aims include fighting terrorism, paedophilia and Internet-based crime, but the measures sometimes threaten freedom of expression.

The 15 enemies of the Internet
(in alphabetical order)
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15613

[igotthisguitar]

Chinese Internet writer sentenced to 12 years
Tue May 16, 02:43 AM EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese Internet writer was jailed for 12 years on Tuesday for "subversion of state power" after backing a movement by exiled dissidents to hold free elections, his lawyer said.

Yang Tianshui, 45, who has been in custody since last December, did not plan to appeal, a protest against a trial he felt was illegal, his lawyer, Li Jianqiang, said.

"We expected the result, but we are still dissatisfied because he is innocent," Li told Reuters.

It was one of the heaviest prison terms meted out in recent years to an Internet writer. Writer Shi Tao was sentenced last April to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets abroad.

Yang is one of several Internet writers and journalists being tried this month, amid what analysts say is a tightening of controls on media and freedom of expression.

Yang was charged after posting essays on the Internet in support of the "Velvet Action of China," a movement named for the "Velvet Revolution" that peacefully overthrew communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia.

He was also accused of illegally receiving overseas financial assistance and plotting to form provincial chapters of the outlawed China Democracy Party.

Yang, who was tried in the coastal province of Jiangsu, refused to answer questions from the prosecutor or judge, his lawyer said.

A member of the China chapter of International PEN, the movement founded to defend freedom of expression, Yang has a history of coming up against China's communist rulers.

He previously served 10 years on "counter-revolution" charges for condemning the military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators on Tiananmen Square, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. He was released in 2000.

The tough sentence comes a day after the lawyer for New York Times researcher Zhao Yan said the case against him had been revived, dashing hopes for his imminent release. He has been held since September 2004.

Zhao's lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said he did not know what charges were on the new bill of indictment or whether a date had been set for trial.

China was the leading jailer of journalists in 2005 for the seventh consecutive year, the Committee to Protect Journalists says.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/16052006/6/n-technology-chinese-internet-writer-sentenced-12-years.html

[jinglejangle]

[jinglejangle]

So:

If I buy tiddleywinks made by sweatshop workers from Chinese companies, then that's fine, that's just good business.

If I sell wonder-watzits to Chinese corporate executives who have gotten fat off the suffering of the sweatshop workers; then that's fine; that's just good business.

But if I agree to allow the chinese government to censor their populace's searches regarding the exploitation of chinese peasent workers, then that's a horrible atrocity; I am turning a profit at the expense of the oppressed multitudes.

Get real people.

If you want to criticize the US government for allowing trade with oppressive nations, then I can totally understand; but don't single Google out of the pack for persecution. Google is probably in like the 95% percentile on the ethical business with China scale.