Attacks on the Press: China Holds Fast to Information Control
Internet users posed ever-bigger challenges to Beijing’s media controls, boosting debate on public safety and censorship. But ahead of a 2012 leadership transition, the Chinese Communist Party looks likely to fiercely suppress dissent. By Madeline Earp
In China, real people vs. Internet minders
In the next three months, users of China’s microblog weibo.com — “weibo” is the generic Chinese term for Twitter-like platforms — run by the huge sina.com (the English site is here) news portal, entertainment and blogging site, will have to start providing their real-world identities to the site, instead of simply being able to register.…
Chinese censorship fans rumors on Jiang Zemin
Sina’s Twitter-like microblog platform Weibo blocked searches for “death,” “river” and “301 Hospital” on Wednesday, according to The Wall Street Journal website. The company was responding to what Reuters reported was the service’s most-discussed topic yesterday–the rumored demise of former President Jiang Zemin, whose surname, Jiang, means “river,” and who may or may not have…