Chen Guangcheng

11 results arranged by date

Attacks on the Press: As Leaders Change, China Tightens Control

China’s new leaders can open a new era for free expression. They have much to do. By Madeline Earp

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Thorning’s chance to press China for media freedom

Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt is in China this week to meet with top leaders, according to international news reports. CPJ’s Advocacy and Communications Associate Magnus Ag and Senior Asia Program Researcher Madeline Earp co-wrote an op-ed calling on Thorning–as she is called in the Danish press–to raise the issue of press freedom. An edited…

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A police officer patrols as part of heavy security at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. (AFP/Mark Ralston)

23 years after Tiananmen, China is still paying

The annual crackdown on commemorations of the June 4 anniversary of the brutal suppression of student-led demonstrations based in Tiananmen Square in 1989 Beijing is under way, according to Agence France-Presse. What’s concerning is the number of writers and activists for whom “crackdown” is the new normal.

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An Internet user visits a Sina Weibo site. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)

Sina ‘information credit score’ restricts Weibo users

Sina’s Twitter-like microblog service Weibo has released new guidelines to restrict users who share banned content, according to international news reports. It’s the first time such guidelines target users who adopt puns, homonyms, and other veiled references to discuss censored news stories without using keywords on the propaganda department’s blacklist, the reports said. 

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Several Internet users in China are now unable to access Weibo, the popular microblog platform. (Reuters)

Chinese microblog regulates, suspends users–again

Pity those of us who monitor the ups and downs of China’s popular microblog platform, Sina Weibo. For every story its users spread in defiance of local censorship, there follows a clampdown. Whether it’s the latest strike against rumors, or real name registration, or newly banned keywords, there’s always another restriction in the works as…

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In a press conference today, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Hong Lei, above, evaded questions about Al-Jazeera being denied journalist visas. (AP/Andy Wong)

China ducks questions about Al-Jazeera expulsion

“The Beijing branch of Al-Jazeera is still functioning normally.” This was not an auspicious reaction to the news that Al-Jazeera English has closed its Beijing bureau after being refused journalist visas. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Hong Lei’s responses at today’s press conference did not improve from there, according to a partial transcript published by…

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A police officer records the press card of a journalist outside a hospital where Chen Guangcheng is seeking treatment. (AP/Ng Han Guan)

Chen Guangcheng reporting censored, obstructed

New York, May 3, 2012–Chinese security officials’ ongoing obstruction of foreign and domestic journalists covering dissident Chen Guangcheng is a worrying sign for supporters trying to secure his safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Authorities in Chen’s native Shandong province have kept the blind, self-taught lawyer isolated from the media since September 2010.

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Blind lawyer spurs news blackout in China

News of blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng has been censored for months. International news reports of his escape last week from incarceration in his home in Linyi, Shandong–apparently to U.S. protection, although his whereabouts remain unclear–has only intensified that censorship. That is unlikely to stop discussion among those familiar with Chen’s case.

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Critical Chinese writer released on conditional terms

New York, August 11, 2011–Authorities should cease the residential surveillance of writer Ran Yunfei and allow him to communicate freely following his release from jail this week, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Ran has been forbidden from speaking publicly, according to The Associated Press.

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China releases artist Ai Weiwei, questions remain

New York, June 22, 2011–Artist and filmmaker Ai Weiwei’s release from prison leaves questions unanswered about his illegal detention and other missing activists and journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The whereabouts of Ai’s associate, freelance journalist Wen Tao, missing since April 3 and presumed detained, is still unknown.

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