China cracks down on blogs

2004-03-18 13:55

Beijing - China is targeting blogs - diary-style personal pages for internet users - in its latest attempt to censor the increasing popularity of the Internet in the country, a rights group said Thursday.

Two sites hosting blogs for thousands of people - who express their views about news, themselves or anything they want - have been shut down by the government, the Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders said.

One of the blogs, "BlogBus.com," hosted more than 15 000 blogs that have now been made inaccessible, the group said in a statement.

The site was shut down on March 11 for allowing a letter to be posted that was critical of the government.

The blog website could not be opened on Thursday.

"Due to the fact that the content in some blog user's blog violated regulations, the web server has been temporarily shut," a message said on the website. "We will try resolve the problem as quickly as possible."

The other blog hosting site, "Blogcn.com," was shut down on March 14. It was also inaccessible on Thursday.

Crackdown

The crackdown on blogs coincides with the opening of the 60th session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, at which China has a seat without respecting its international commitments, the international press freedom organisation said.

It also comes days after China's legislature approved an amendment to its constitution to say for the first time that the state respects and protects human rights.

Reporters Without Borders Thursday expressed its anger at this latest escalation of Internet censorship.

"After closing websites and discussion forums, the Chinese authorities are now targeting blogs, one of the last outlets for expression still open to internet-users," it said.

China has previously tried to regulate and control use of the Internet by shutting down mushrooming Internet cafes where anyone can get online, sometimes anonymously, and only allowing registered companies to operate such businesses.

It regularly blocks Internet websites, including those of the foreign media. And authorities have detained dissidents and other Internet users for expressing politically sensitive writings or views critical of the government.

- AFP