WebProNews » RSF

RSF: China Blocked Google Sites

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 23:09:21 +0000

A high level meeting of China’s Communist government took place this week, during which time Reporters Without Borders said China redirected certain Internet traffic to Baidu.

Attempts to reach Google Blog Search and YouTube from China have been unsuccessful since October 17, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) charged today.

The organization, which supports press freedom worldwide, said attempts to reach Google Blog Search go to Baidu, a native Chinese search engine, instead. YouTube cannot be reached at all, though RSF said another video sharing site, Dailymotion, can be accessed.

RSF has been a long-time critic of China’s practices with regards to press freedom, and the cause of journalists imprisoned by the State. They blasted the blocking taking place:

“The blocking of these sites comes at a perfect time for the government. Blogs and video-sharing sites such as YouTube offer ways for Internet users to share situations they may have encountered during the congress. Preventing Chinese citizens from having access to them forces them to rely on the national media for their information.”

RSF also noted that on October 15th, the front pages of all the national newspapers were virtually identical.

Meanwhile, top US technology companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Cisco continue to do business with the Chinese government, citing the usual refrain about complying with local laws. China’s massively growing base of Internet users, second only to the US, has enticed these companies into the country.

They don’t seem to have plans to leave at any particular time, either.

Microsoft, Yahoo Approve China Blog Registry

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:09:56 +0000

Complying with local laws, even ones that could jeopardize the liberty of Chinese bloggers, has been the mantra of tech companies doing business in China.

Microsoft, Yahoo Approve China Blog Registry

Reporters Without Borders is already hopping mad at both Yahoo and Microsoft for acceding to Chinese government requirements on censorship, and in Yahoo’s case, its role in the prosecution of three journalists in the country.

The journalist rights advocacy group has something new to bash the two big Internet players over, along with a number of other companies. Reporters Without Borders criticized the two companies for signing off on a Chinese “self-discipline pact” that looks like a lead-in to censorship as well as an end to anonymous blogging:

Under the new pact, blog service providers are

Yahoo Denies RSF China Claim

WebProNews Staff — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:19:37 +0000

The saga of jailed Chinese journalist Shi Tao took a sharp twist when Reporters Without Borders accused a Yahoo executive of lying to Congress about Yahoo’s knowledge of Beijing’s investigation.

Journalist advocacy group Reporters Without Borders has been in a running feud with Yahoo over actions by China’s government against reporters. Those actions, including the jailing of Shi Tao, featured evidence against Shi obtained from Yahoo.

RSF furiously denounced Yahoo each time revelations of this cooperation, particularly in the cases of Jiang Lijun, Li Zhi, and Shi, emerged from court documents. The organization recently found more information about the Shi case that has them accusing Yahoo’s Mike Callahan of lying to Congress:

Yahoo! executive Michael Callahan told a US congressional committee in February 2006 that his company had been told nothing about the content of the investigation into Shi Tao which the Chinese authorities began in 2004. But in fact, China’s Department of State Security sent Yahoo! a document dated 22 April 2004 explaining that the authorities wanted information about an Internet user suspected of “illegally providing state secrets to foreign institutions.”

Callahan testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in February 2006. The Chinese Law Prof blog listed an excerpt of his testimony, which is no longer available from the Committee’s website:

Let me take this opportunity to correct inaccurate reports that Yahoo! Hong Kong gave information to the Chinese government. This is absolutely untrue. Yahoo! Hong Kong was not involved in any disclosure of information about Mr. Shi to the Chinese government.

In this case, the Chinese government ordered Yahoo! China to provide user information, and Yahoo! China complied with Chinese law. To be clear – Yahoo! China and Yahoo! Hong Kong have always operated independently of one another. There was not then, nor is there today, any exchange of user information between Yahoo! Hong Kong and Yahoo! China.

Yahoo provided this statement from a company spokesperson in response to a request for comment on RSF’s allegations:

"Mr. Callahan’s testimony to Congress last year was accurate and forthright. Mr. Callahan also clearly and directly condemned punishment of any activity recognized as free expression, whether in China or anywhere else in the world."

The Chinese Law Prof blog entry said if Callahan’s testimony was accurate, which Yahoo asserted to WebProNews today is the case, "the court is either dissembling or using forged evidence."

The PDF presented by RSF shows Beijing’s State Security Bureau addressed its Notice of Evidence Collection to ‘Beijing Representative Office, Yahoo! (HK) Holdings Ltd.’ This seems to indicate the request arrived at a Yahoo Hong Kong office in Beijing.

It is possible that the Beijing office knew of the request, but the Hong Kong-based office of Yahoo HK Holdings did not, or at least never informed Callahan of the request. There doesn’t appear to be a logical reason for Callahan to lie to the House Committee on this point, since Yahoo always claims it has to comply with local law enforcement requests.

It’s still odd to see such a contrast between the request RSF revealed, and Callahan’s testimony.

UPDATE: Rebecca MacKinnon has a link to Callahan’s full testimony from February 2006.

Another Chinese Cyber-Dissident Jailed

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:17:18 +0000

Not to brag as much as give thanks: it’s nice to live in a place where you won’t go to jail for having something to say. "Cyber-dissident" Zhang Jianhong (pen name, Li Hong) can go to jail for it, and is, for six years.

We can also be thankful phrases like "reeducation-through-work camp for counter-revolutionary propaganda" still sound to us like something out of a George Orwell fantasy.

Li Hong had already been to one such camp after the Tiananmen Square incident (incident, as in complete breakdown of humanity) in 1989. Li Hong is heading off to jail this time for writing over 100 articles and publishing them at Aiquinghai.net, of which he was the editor, and at Boxun, and The Epoch Times.

Li Hong was found guilty of "incitement to subvert the state’s authority" as he called for political reform in the articles in question.

“This verdict is sadly yet another example of the judicial system being used by the political authorities,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is outrageous that cyber-dissidents get severe prison sentences just for the views they express. Yet again, they are being made to pay a heavy price for their commitment."

And, according to Li Hong’s attorney, he was just exercising his freedom of speech guaranteed in China’s constitution. If you’re like me, that statement sounds as odd as saying he found fire in a bucket of water. Who knew China’s constitution had free speech provisions?

Reporters Without Borders has been aggressive about condemning acts of states that suppress free speech, as well as the corporations that participate in them in some way.

Yahoo’s been a major target of RSF (Reporters Sans Frontiers) for its role in helping Chinese authorities discover the identities of dissidents and journalists.

Google, too, has come under fire for allowing China to censor search results in order to do business there.

At some point, it would seem, American companies wishing to do business in China could do more good by putting their corporate feet down than by selling out. China needs their collective business as much as these companies need new markets. So how many human rights violations constitute grounds for not doing business in these markets?

137 imprisoned journalists, 13 dead journalists, and 60 imprisoned cyber-dissidents are not enough, it would seem, to plant the seeds of a conscience. But it is enough to build a case for complicity.

China Gmail Says To Google: “No Sale”

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 23:03:27 +0000

The owners of the domain Gmail.cn, a top-level domain in China, have offers on the table from Google, but so far they have dug in and refused to sell.

Some of the rougher aspects of internationalization have plagued Google when it comes to domain names. Over the past couple of years, they have fought legal battles in Germany and Britain over Gmail as a trademark.

Google’s current practice of calling it Google Mail in those countries should provide an idea of how Google has fared in those disputes. China could be next if talks with ISM Technologies in Beijing don’t go the search advertising company’s way.

Reuters reported on Google’s tussle with ISM Technologies, which just happens to claim status as the “largest wholesale Internet domain registrar accredited with Chinese government-backed Internet body CNNIC.”

That could indicate a tight political affiliation with Beijing’s leadership. Flinging a lawsuit at ISM Technologies over the trademark rights to Gmail might have repercussions politically for Google.

There is a greater issue at stake that makes it appear Google wants to tread the same waters that Yahoo has in China. Yahoo has operated mail servers where Chinese law can reach them. Journalists have been jailed in China, and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has loudly cited Yahoo’s role in handing over information from its accounts to law enforcement, helping them to imprison three reporters.

Google has been able to avoid this by keeping services requiring registration like Gmail out of China. Pursuing Gmail.cn and placing servers within the country could expose Google to the same situations Yahoo has faced, with the same results and a blistering outcry against the company.

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RSF Says Shame On Yahoo

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 21:14:19 +0000

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has launched an initiative to help increase awareness of countries that actively censor the Internet, and singled out Yahoo’s Jerry Yang for specific complaints about his company’s dealings with oppressive governments.

Yahoo Draws The Ire Of The RSF

The organization has offered a three-step process for people to make a statement against the Internet censorship practices engaged in by 13 countries. Their “Twenty-Four Hours Against Internet Censorship” encourages people to stand up for the freedom of expression.

Site visitors can “vote” against countries that have become what RSF calls the Internet Black Holes. As examples, RSF cited the ban on broadband connectivity in Iran and China’s continued filtering of websites among the thirteen countries cited for their oppression.

RSF provided a list of those countries – Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Podcasting News noted how RSF kicked off their 24-hour protest in France:

In Paris, Reporters Without Borders projected a gigantic world map of online censorship onto the city’s monuments. The press and passers-by saw the map projected onto the facade of Saint-Lazare station, onto the building that houses the French headquarters of Yahoo!, and onto the Bastille Opera. The organizers’ aim was to encourage the public to get involved in the fight to defend the right to online free expression.

China’s actions and Yahoo’s assistance in the prosecution of journalist Shi Tao has been a continual sticking point for RSF. In response, they encourage visitors to the Twenty-Four Hours site to record a voice message for Yang. “A simple ‘Shame on Yahoo’ would do,” RSF said.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Yahoo! In The Hot Seat With Free Press Advocates

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 19:27:40 +0000

Reporters Without Borders is accusing Yahoo! of providing information to the Chinese government to procure the conviction of a Hong Kong journalist for leaking state secrets to foreign websites.

On April 30, Chinese journalist Shi Tao, of the daily business newspaper Dangdai Shang Bao, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison after the text of an email showed he had provided foreign websites the content of a message from the government warning journalists about coverage of the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF-Reporters Sans Frontiers), after combing the text of the verdict in the case, says that Yahoo! Holdings Hong Kong provided Chinese authorities with the information to identify and convict Shi Tao.

RSF has been vigilant in calling out search engines for ethical quandaries related to their desire to tap the lucrative Chinese market. And Yahoo!’s alleged infringement, they say, is a serious ethical issue, a compromise the search company was willing to forfeit to do business there.

“Yahoo! appears to be willing to go to any lengths to gain shares of the Chinese market… It is one thing to turn a blind eye to the Chinese government’s abuses and it is quite another thing to collaborate,” said the free press organization. Yahoo! has not issued comment on the matter.

Google, also, has come under criticism from RSF recently for bending to the weight of the Chinese government. When Google announced the opening of research offices in Beijing, China allowed the search company to set up if certain speech guidelines were followed. RSF was incensed at the possibility that Google would allow the censorship.

“We simply ask you to reject self-censorship. If the Chinese authorities want to block access to certain websites, they must do it themselves. Indeed, they do block many sites. But we would find it extremely disturbing if you yourselves were to participate in the Chinese government’s policy of suppressing press freedom,” pleaded RSF.

Google’s ethics department issued a statement on the matter.

“In this case it is less than two percent of Chinese news sources. On balance we believe that having a service with links that work and omits a fractional number is better than having a service that is not available at all. It was a difficult tradeoff for us to make, but the one we felt ultimately serves the best interests of our users located in China,” the Google Team said.

Doing business in China comes with the cost of dealing with pressures from the Chinese government. The communist state regulates the information available to its citizens, “protecting” them from “harmful” content. Words like “democracy” and “freedom,” demonstration,” “democratic movement,” and Taiwan independence,” are considered “anti-communist,” and Chinese content filters disallow access to any news source or website containing such “forbidden speech.”

All three of the major search engines, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN, engage in self-censorship.

“China actually shut us down a couple of times,” said Google honcho Sergey Brin in an interview with Playboy Magazine. He added that popular demand for the search service in China led to the government re-enabled their operations.

By the end of 2005, China is expected to have 125 million Internet users, second only to the United States with 200 million.