Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Chinese bloggers required to register
Sometime in May, I had made a post comparing freedom of expression in China and India, and how Indians generally tended to undervalue these freedoms when it came to comparisons between India and China. While the Indian government is considering accreditation for serious bloggers, the Associated Press is just reporting that the Chinese government has ordered all bloggers and websites to register with the government or face closure, in a new attempt to clamp down on dissent online.
Commercial publishers and advertisers could be fined up to 1m yuan (£66,000) for failing to register, according to documents on the Chinese information industry ministry's website. Private bloggers or websites must register the complete identity of the person responsible for the site, and the ministry - which has set a June 30 deadline for compliance - said 74% of all sites had already registered. "The internet has profited many people, but it also has brought many problems, such as sex, violence, feudal superstitions and other harmful information that has seriously poisoned people's spirits," the ministry said in an explanation of the new rules.
All public media in China is controlled by the state, but limits on the internet have tended to lag behind advances in technology that hindered Beijing's ability to keep tabs on users and service providers. In the latest move, information industry ministry computers will monitor sites in real time and search for their registration numbers, reporting back if a site is unregistered.
Pretty unbelievable, really.
Commercial publishers and advertisers could be fined up to 1m yuan (£66,000) for failing to register, according to documents on the Chinese information industry ministry's website. Private bloggers or websites must register the complete identity of the person responsible for the site, and the ministry - which has set a June 30 deadline for compliance - said 74% of all sites had already registered. "The internet has profited many people, but it also has brought many problems, such as sex, violence, feudal superstitions and other harmful information that has seriously poisoned people's spirits," the ministry said in an explanation of the new rules.
All public media in China is controlled by the state, but limits on the internet have tended to lag behind advances in technology that hindered Beijing's ability to keep tabs on users and service providers. In the latest move, information industry ministry computers will monitor sites in real time and search for their registration numbers, reporting back if a site is unregistered.
Pretty unbelievable, really.
