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<\/div>\n<\/dt>\nIn the course of the three-day meeting, which ended on 6 November and was hosted by the Internet Information Office, the Internet companies undertook to implement government directives on online surveillance and to combat pornography, fraud and the dissemination of rumours and false information online.<\/p>\n
Reporters Without Borders condemns the promised cooperation, which will have the effect of turning these companies into the accomplices of the government\u2019s cyber-censorship.<\/p>\n
Industry and information technology minister Miao Wei told the Internet companies they must increase their investment in \u201ctracking surveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of late, the government seems to have been stepping up its efforts to curb the free flow of news and information online. At the end of last month, reports of rioting in the east of the country were filtered and searches for Zhili, the name of the city that was the centre of the unrest, were blocked.<\/p>\n
The authorities also stepped up their control of the Internet in Inner Mongolia following protests about the death of a herdsman on 20 October while trying to protect traditional grazing lands. Many Mongolian websites called for demonstrations against the government\u2019s attempts to impose a news blackout on the affair, and access to several sites such as Boljoo<\/a>, Mongolian BBS<\/a> and Medege<\/a> was blocked.<\/p>\n China is on the Reporters Without Borders list of \u201cEnemies of the Internet<\/a>\u201d and is ranked 171st out of 178 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index<\/a>.<\/p>\n Respect for free speech continues to deteriorate in China<\/strong> China\u2019s restrictions on Internet use, which affect bloggers, journalists, activists and many others, have led the US ambassador to the World Trade Organization to complain about China\u2019s \u201cnational firewall\u201d and website blocking on the grounds that they violate WTO rules by making it harder for companies outside China to offer \u201cservices to Chinese customers.\u201d<\/p>\n The complaint, the text of which was released on 19 October, was rejected the next day by foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu. \u201cWe do not accept using the excuse of \u2018Internet freedom\u2019 to interfere in other countries\u2019 internal practices,\u201d Jiang said, adding that China\u2019s policy was to \u201cmaintain a good Internet environment and to safeguard public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n In a country where the number of Internet users has reached half a billion and microblogging is now very popular, Reporters Without Borders condemns the government\u2019s obsessive Internet control policies and its mendacious propaganda. The organization has followed many recent cases that highlight China\u2019s repressive policies towards bloggers and online activists.<\/p>\n Propaganda<\/i><\/p>\n In Inner Mongolia, a herdsman identified only as Zorigt, was reportedly killed by an oil transport truck on 20 October while trying to protect his grazing lands in Huhtolgoi Gachaa, in the district of Uushin. The authorities tried to hush up the case, portraying it as an ordinary road accident, and the government news agency Xinhua ran a story supporting the official version.<\/p>\n But the case has set off a wave of online protests by Inner Mongolian netizens. A call for demonstrations<\/a> is currently circulating online in Chinese and Mongolian, despite the Chinese government\u2019s censorship. Several articles on the subject have \u201cdisappeared\u201d from the Chinese Internet.<\/p>\n The local police have reportedly threatened the herdsman\u2019s family and told them not to talk about the case. Any kind of demonstration has been strictly forbidden in Uushin. Reporters Without Borders calls on the authorities to allow journalists and bloggers to investigate the case and allow them to publish their findings.<\/p>\n The death of another herdsman, identified as Mergen, in similar circumstances five months ago prompted many demonstrations in Inner Mongolia. Many herdsmen have been beaten or attacked in disputes over oil and gas industry convoys crossing their lands.<\/p>\n Propaganda messages, probably posted by government-hired bloggers known as \u201c50 cents,\u201d have mushroomed online. One such post said: \u201cDear college students of Hohhot and friends from all walks of life, the event which took place in Galuut Township of Uushin Banner is just a traffic accident. Some people who have hidden intentions are interpreting it as an ethnic problem or a conflict with the oil and natural gas development. The government of Uushin Banner is taking the case extremely seriously (…) Hope our fellow students do not believe the rumours.\u201d<\/p>\n Online censorship<\/i><\/p>\n The plenary session that the central committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held from 15 to 18 October was officially dedicated to \u201ccultural reforms\u201d but in reality was used to prepare new Internet control measures. The directive about protecting “cultural security” and enhancing the \u201cinfluence\u201d of Chinese culture that was issued after the plenum suggests that censorship will be reinforced yet again.<\/p>\n \u201cReform of the cultural system\u201d means \u201censuring that the media, publications, movies, Internet and so on serve the party\u2019s goal of galvanizing patriotic and nationalistic sentiments,\u201d Willy Lam, an expert in Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told Agence France-Presse<\/i>. Despite the \u201cGreat Firewall,\u201d the government is still having difficulty in controlling the flow of criticism and undesired information online.<\/p>\n The CPC\u2019s propaganda agencies recently stepped up the pressure on prominent Chinese Internet figures. Propaganda chief Li Changchun met Robin Li, the owner of China\u2019s leading Internet search engine, Baidu, in September. Other senior propaganda officials met the owners of Youku (a YouTube equivalent) and Sina (the company that owns the very popular microblogging site Sina Weibo) in an apparent attempt to harmonize their commercial policies with the government\u2019s political goals.<\/p>\n Several new keyword combinations are being blocked online. It is now impossible to search for a combination of the word \u201coccupy\u201d and the name of a Chinese city, for example, \u201cOccupy Beijing\u201d(\u5360\u9886\u5317\u4eac) or \u201cOccupy Shanghai\u201d(\u5360\u9886\u4e0a\u6d77)…), because the authorities clearly fear the spread of the \u201cOccupy Wall Street\u201d movement.<\/p>\n \u201cJasmine,\u201d the adjective often applied to the revolution that toppled Tunisia\u2019s President Ben Ali, is also censored. The China Digital Times<\/i> website has a list<\/a> of some of the terms that are censored on the Chinese Internet.<\/p>\n Internet users arrested for spreading \u201crumours\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Reporters Without Borders condemns the way the authorities use the fight against online \u201crumours<\/a>\u201d as a pretext to silence dissidents and carry out arrests.<\/p>\n In a communiqu\u00e9<\/a> posted on government sites on 25 October, the State Internet Information Office reported that the law banning the spreading of rumours had been applied several times to netizens who posted sensitive content. The office would continue its efforts to \u201cstop rumours and punish the individuals and websites that spread them,\u201d the communiqu\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n A student in Yunnan was arrested for spreading \u201cfalse information\u201d about a murder case on forums and blogs. A Shanghai resident was detained for two weeks for posting supposedly \u201cforged\u201d tax documents online. A website dedicated to a recent military aircraft accident was given a warning for posting information \u201cwithout confirming the source or facts.\u201d<\/p>\n Intimidation and harassment<\/i><\/p>\n
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\n27 October 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n