Blog be gone!
No matter how hilarious Scoop is, I wish it would stop being so relevant.
A friend of mine in the Chinese media sent me this article and it blew me away. It simply reinforces my feelings that foreign reporters act, probably at an unconscious level, like spies and perpetuators of homeland ideologies. Obviously, Western reporters in the East tout their civil liberties horn often and loudly, and mostly they do it because they are concerned about colleagues in the Chinese media who don't enjoy the same freedoms. But at some point, one has to wonder just how far ideology, western freedoms or communist lack of's, have seeped beneath our skin.
My friend and I share the same reaction: whoa, this is interesting. It's loaded with philosophical questions about the nature of our belief and inherent assumptions.
Anyway, enjoy:
[EDIT: To make things even more absurd, I sent this link to the above-mentioned friend who originally linked me to the story, and it was inaccessible. Blogger sites are banned in China.]
Chinese Bloggers Stage Hoax
Aimed at Censorship Debate
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER and JUYING QIN
March 14, 2006; Page B3
Some well-known bloggers in China used an unlikely tool last week to make a point that Western news media and politicians misunderstand Chinese censorship. They shut themselves down.
Notices posted on the Chinese-language blogs Massage Milk and Milk Pig announced that "Due to unavoidable reasons with which everyone is familiar, this blog is temporarily closed."
Within hours, English-language bloggers and Western news media spread the word that the Chinese government had closed the sites. The BBC news service reported that Massage Milk was "closed down by the authorities," adding that the act had coincided with the annual session of the Chinese legislature. Picking up on that report and others from news services, French free-press group Reporters Without Borders issued a statement condemning the closure of the blogs.
China has recently stepped up its censorship of dissent and monitoring of the Internet, late last year asking Microsoft Corp. to take down the blog of journalist Michael Anti, among other acts. After the topic hit the front pages of U.S. newspapers and magazines, Congress held hearings in February about the ways in which U.S. Internet companies cooperate with Chinese censorship.
But in this case, it appears the Chinese government wasn't involved. By Thursday, a day after the shut-downs, the blogs were back up and running.
In an interview, Beijing-based journalist Wang Xiaofeng of Massage Milk says he shut his blog down to make a point about freedom of speech -- just one directed at the West instead of at Beijing. He calls the Western press "irresponsible" and says that the hoax was designed "to give foreign media a lesson that Chinese affairs are not always the way you think."
...
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114229717280997182.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
A friend of mine in the Chinese media sent me this article and it blew me away. It simply reinforces my feelings that foreign reporters act, probably at an unconscious level, like spies and perpetuators of homeland ideologies. Obviously, Western reporters in the East tout their civil liberties horn often and loudly, and mostly they do it because they are concerned about colleagues in the Chinese media who don't enjoy the same freedoms. But at some point, one has to wonder just how far ideology, western freedoms or communist lack of's, have seeped beneath our skin.
My friend and I share the same reaction: whoa, this is interesting. It's loaded with philosophical questions about the nature of our belief and inherent assumptions.
Anyway, enjoy:
[EDIT: To make things even more absurd, I sent this link to the above-mentioned friend who originally linked me to the story, and it was inaccessible. Blogger sites are banned in China.]
Chinese Bloggers Stage Hoax
Aimed at Censorship Debate
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER and JUYING QIN
March 14, 2006; Page B3
Some well-known bloggers in China used an unlikely tool last week to make a point that Western news media and politicians misunderstand Chinese censorship. They shut themselves down.
Notices posted on the Chinese-language blogs Massage Milk and Milk Pig announced that "Due to unavoidable reasons with which everyone is familiar, this blog is temporarily closed."
Within hours, English-language bloggers and Western news media spread the word that the Chinese government had closed the sites. The BBC news service reported that Massage Milk was "closed down by the authorities," adding that the act had coincided with the annual session of the Chinese legislature. Picking up on that report and others from news services, French free-press group Reporters Without Borders issued a statement condemning the closure of the blogs.
China has recently stepped up its censorship of dissent and monitoring of the Internet, late last year asking Microsoft Corp. to take down the blog of journalist Michael Anti, among other acts. After the topic hit the front pages of U.S. newspapers and magazines, Congress held hearings in February about the ways in which U.S. Internet companies cooperate with Chinese censorship.
But in this case, it appears the Chinese government wasn't involved. By Thursday, a day after the shut-downs, the blogs were back up and running.
In an interview, Beijing-based journalist Wang Xiaofeng of Massage Milk says he shut his blog down to make a point about freedom of speech -- just one directed at the West instead of at Beijing. He calls the Western press "irresponsible" and says that the hoax was designed "to give foreign media a lesson that Chinese affairs are not always the way you think."
...
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114229717280997182.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
posted by iain.e.marlow at 11:18 AM
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