Die Reporter ohne Grenzen haben heute einen Bericht veröffentlicht, der sich mit der Internetzensur in China beschäftigt. Ein Staat, der 1,3 Mrd. Bürger zählt. Ein Staat mit einem kommunistischen Regime an der Spitze. Ein Staat, der sich der Repression und Zensur gegenüber Kritikern und Andersdenkenden bedient. Ein Staat, der sich 2008 trotzdem zu verkaufen wissen wird, wenn er Gastgeber der olympischen Sommerspiele ist.

Use of the Internet is continuing to spread in China. According to the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), the number of Internet users reached 162 million, or 12.3 per cent of the population, on 1 July. A total of 1.3 million Chinese websites have been listed. And 19 percent of China’s Internet users have their own blog.
To maintain its grip on power, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has always controlled all the traditional news media (print media, radio and TV), banning independent news and information and foreign participation. But the government has seen its control eroded by the Internet’s emergence. The Internet is the first medium to offer the public a direct means of expressing itself. But that does not mean that China’s many privately-owned news websites are free. They, too, must submit to censorship and must practice self-censorship to avoid being quickly banned. (…)

The Information Office of the State Council organises courses in order to exercise ideological control over its employees and to encourage better censorship and self-censorship practices.Twenty five-day courses for 50 people at a time have already been held in Beijing. A certificate is issued to participants at the end of each course.
The Beijing Information Office has also established a training service in cooperation with the faculty of journalism of the Beijing People’s University. They run two-day courses for up to 200 participants at a time. (…)

Finally, the employees of the 19 leading Beijing-based websites attend a meeting at the Internet Information Administrative Bureau every Friday morning from 9 to 11, at which all the subjects that most interested Internet users that week are evaluated and bureau members criticise some sites. Then the bureau members announce the subjects to be covered in the coming week, the articles to be written under their supervision, and the articles to be eliminated. (…)

Hier downloaden (PDF)