“Chinese Authorities Declare War on Blogs”

That’s the somewhat dramatic headline of a new article on China’s mandatory website registration policy.

The international media organisation Reporters Without Borders voiced alarm yesterday at the Chinese government’s announced intention to close down all China-based websites and blogs that are not officially registered.

The plan is all the more worrying, the group said, as the Chinese government has also revealed that it has a new system for monitoring sites in real time and spotting those that fail to comply.

“The Chinese authorities use this type of announcement above all to intimidate website operators and bloggers,” the press freedom organisation said. “The authorities also hope to push the most outspoken online sites to migrate abroad where they will become inaccessible to those inside China because of the Chinese filtering systems.”

Reporters Without Borders added: “Those who continue to publish under their real names on sites hosted in China will either have to avoid political subjects or just relay the Communist Party’s propaganda. This decision will enable those in power to control online news and information much more effectively.”

They’re doing all they can to make the censorship bubble airtight. If I were a registered blogger in China (blogging in Chinese) I’d think very carefully about every syllable and punctuation mark I wrote. Keep the reforms coming.

The Discussion: One Comment

I know from what little time I spent in China that they have completely blocked blogspot.com.

June 7, 2005 @ 3:39 pm | Comment

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