TOK IA–Bias and Censorship – Video
TOK IA--Bias and Censorship
TOK IA
By: Bob Johnson
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TOK IA--Bias and Censorship - Video
Archive for the ‘Censorship’ Category
Living with Censorship: The Kashmir Experience – Video
Living with Censorship: The Kashmir Experience
Living with Censorship: The Kashmir Experience Featuring: Iftikar Gilani, Yusuf Jameel, Afsana Rashid, Fahad Shah Hosted by: Samar Halarnkar
By: icggoa
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Living with Censorship: The Kashmir Experience - Video
Censorship Fight at Newspaper in China Grows
Journalists and editors at an influential and often outspoken newspaper in China have gone on strike in protest of government censorship. The dispute involves a local propaganda official who allegedly called for changes to the publication's annual New Years editorial to its readers. The standoff at the Southern Weekly newspaper is growing from an internal dispute into a national debate about government oversight of the media.
The influential newspaper has long been known for its outspokenness and independent-minded efforts to cover the news in a country where information is a tightly controlled commodity.
Employees say that when they returned from an annual New Years holiday last Thursday they discovered that a section of the paper that was to discuss the touchy topic of constitutional reform had been dramatically changed. That prompted an uproar.
The uproar came first online - on blogs and other Twitter-like Weibo social media sites - with staffers accusing the propaganda chief where the paper is based, in Guangdong province, of making the changes and then, on Monday, in the form of protests outside the companys offices.
Photos of the protesters that managed to briefly get posted online before they were taken down showed some holding up signs and shouting slogans calling for freedom of speech, democracy and political reform.
Li Datong, a former prominent Chinese editor who was fired from a state media organization for his views, says the apparent intervention by the propaganda department appears to be a new tactic for state censors.
"The propaganda department has already changed from the previous mode of censorship after publication to what we see now as a move towards censorship before publication," said Li. "It does not matter if it was Tuo Zhen, himself, but it was the propaganda department that did this. They have transformed what was control after publication to control before publication. This is a very nasty beginning."
Dozens of academics and editors have already begun openly calling, on line, for the resignation of the propaganda chief. Students from Chinas Nanjing University and others have posted pictures of themselves online as well holding cards that cheered the newspaper on urging it to Jia You in Chinese, which means "Go."
Some are already beginning to believe the dispute could become a watershed event that promotes much deeper reforms.
Since Xi Jinping took over as head of the Communist Party in November, journalists have been taking bolder steps in testing the limits of the countrys new team of leaders both in reporting and on editorial pages.
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Censorship Fight at Newspaper in China Grows
China newspaper in rare stand against censorship
BEIJING A dispute over censorship at a Chinese newspaper known for edgy reporting evolved Monday into a political challenge for China's new leadership as prominent scholars demanded a censor's dismissal and hundreds of protesters called for democratic reforms.
The scholars and protesters were acting in support of the newspaper in its confrontation with a top censor after the publication was forced to change a New Year's editorial calling for political reform into a tribute praising the ruling Communist Party. Rumors circulated that at least one of the newspaper's news departments was going on strike, but they could not be immediately confirmed.
CBS News' Shuai Zhang says the situation escalated over the weekend, as the newspaper's management apparently seized control of the paper's official account on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, which has almost 4 million followers in the vast country.
A statement was issued on the account claiming the controversial front-page editorial had been written by staff, and was not a forced alteration.
Editorial staff at the paper, called Southern Weekly, then used their own Weibo accounts to refute the fake message, and decided to stage a strike over the government's apparent hijacking of the account. The social media editor of the paper said on Wiebo that he had lost control of the newspaper's official account and that it was now being updated by the paper's management.
Shuai adds that if staff members do go on strike, it would be the first time in more than two decades that the editorial staff of a major newspaper had openly protested government censorship.
Protesters gathered outside the offices of the newspaper in the southern city of Guangzhou to lay flowers at the gate, hold signs and shout slogans calling for freedom of speech, political reform, constitutional governance and democracy.
"I feel that the ordinary people must awaken," said one of the protesters, Yuan Fengchu, who was reached by phone. "The people are starting to realize that their rights have been taken away by the Communist Party and they are feeling that they are being constantly oppressed."
The protest came as 18 Chinese academics signed an open letter calling for the dismissal of Tuo Zhen, a provincial propaganda minister blamed for the censorship.
The protesting scholars included legal professors, liberal economists, historians and writers.
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China newspaper in rare stand against censorship