The Washington Post has a page one article today about the Chinese government’s ongoing efforts to snuff out information critical of the regime. Penned by Edward Cody, the piece offers insight into the fine tooth comb officials apply to all electronic communications — Internet and cell phones, two modes of communication that are increasingly uncontrollable challenges to the ruling party’s iron-fisted policies.
In an effort to snoop out the billions of web and phone-based conversations, the “Central Propaganda Department” has recruited 30,000 spies to snoop on electronic communications and has deployed little cartoon cop figures that pop up on computer screens to remind people that they are being watched. Just imagine what kind of paranoia this kind of monitoring engenders.
Compounding the fears is the fact that it’s not always clear what censors find jailable offenses. Some of the offenses are clearly political and critical of the government. One man was imprisoned briefly for writing a ribald ditty dealing with the closing of a public school, which he blamed on Communist Party officials. A woman was arrested for disputing official reports of a death toll stemming from a flood.
But, other offenses are hard to categorize. An intern at a little-known website got in hot water for poking fun at the death of a local party official, who died of carbon monoxide poisoning while having a sexual tryst in a car that had the motor running. A woman attracted the negative attention of authorities for misunderstanding something she read in a government-sanctioned publication, China Daily.
But the bottom-line of the piece is that the Chinese government continues to ramp up efforts to maintain censorship in the chaotic world of electronic communications.
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:50 AM|Comments(0)
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