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Chinese digital news under attack in run-up to Olympics, says press freedoms report

Posted: 13/02/08 By: Oliver Luft

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Online news publications have been targeted by the Chinese authorities in the run up to the Olympics, according to an international report released today.

The Reporters Without Boarders annual report on the state of press freedom across the globe claimed that prior to the 17th Chinese Communist Party Congress, last October, authorities began bringing liberal media to heel and closing thousands of websites, blogs and discussion forums.

The report says Chinese authorities have failed to keep promises about freedom of expression made to secure the 2008 Olympics.

A further blow to the credibility of the Games was dealt today when Steven Spielberg withdrew from his role as an adviser because he believed China had failed to apply sufficient pressure on Sudan to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Darfur.

The press freedoms report claimed that more than 180 foreign journalists have been arrested, physically assaulted or threatened in China since Government officials spoke, in 2001, of total freedom of the press around the Games.

Fifteen Chinese journalists and cyber-dissidents, the report said, were arrested in 2007 alone for 'inciting subversion' or 'disclosing state secrets'. Fifty-five reporters and internet-users have been arrested in China since the country was awarded the Olympics, it added.

"All eyes will be on China when the Olympic Games opens in Beijing on 8 August, while 100 or so journalists, internet users and bloggers remain in the country's prisons," stated the report.

"Nobody apart from the International Olympic Committee seems to believe any longer that the government will make a significant human rights concession before the Games start.

"Every time a journalist or blogger is released, another goes into prison. The police have been told to crack down on anyone… Other arrests are expected to follow and China's dissidents will probably be having a hard time this summer."

The report claimed that other regimes keen to limit the powers of the press were also focusing on disrupting digital capture and publication of news.

"Censorship is increasing everywhere with new media," Jean-François Julliard, head of research with Reporters Without Boarders wrote in the report's introduction.

"Mobile phones are a growing target because they can now take photos and film events. Police seized them in Burma during the crackdown on protests in September 2007 when the regime found they were being used to send images to media around the world.

"The new video-sharing and social networking internet websites are also victims of the censors, especially in Syria, Egypt and even Brazil.

"China is the leader in this field and has energetically passed laws to curb their influence."

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