Unnecessary Censorship in Video Games: The Last of Us
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Unnecessary Censorship in Video Games: The Last of Us - Video
ByGolnaz Esfandiari, RFE/R
The Polish foreign minister was in Iran to explore business opportunities in the country.
WASHINGTON -- Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski expressed shock after seeing Iranian media censorship at work during his recent trip to Tehran, and bewilderment after discovering his critical message was not aired on Iranian television.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on March 1, Sikorski publicly put his counterpart on the spot.
"I would also like to add that I mentioned to the minister that yesterday from Isfahan I tried to log onto a website of a major Polish newspaper and, unfortunately, I could not do it. I was told that the website was blocked by censorship. For us, coming from a country that fought for freedom of speech, this came as a shock,"Sikorski said.
The Polish foreign minister went on to say that he also stressed to Zarif the need for human-rights dialogue, and underscored that the world has taken note of the recent rise in executions in the Islamic republic.
Avideolater released by the Polish Foreign Ministry puts Sikorski's comments on the record for all to see, but Iran's tightly controlled media left his criticisms on the cutting floor.
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Iran Media Censors Polish FM On Iranian Media Censorship
facebook and censorship
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By: Chris Henzler
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facebook and censorship - Video
China is blaming technology used to bypass Chinas censorship systems for recent terrorist attacks, suggesting that the government is considering tighter controls on the countrys Internet.
Domestic terrorists from the nations western region are circumventing Chinas online censors to view blocked videos on terrorism, a top Chinese official said on Thursday.
The official, Zhang Chunxian, made the comment after a group of knife-wielding attackers killed 29 civilians earlier this month at a local train station in Kunming, China. The government has blamed the killings on separatists from Xinjiang, a Chinese autonomous region where ethnic violence has broken out before.
Zhang, who is party secretary of Xinjiang, suggested that virtual private networks (VPNs)services that allow Chinese Internet users to visit blocked siteshad a role in fueling the violence.
Right now, 90 percent of Xinjiangs terrorism is the result of jumping the wall, and following online videos to create terrorism, he said while speaking with journalists. A video of his comments was later broadcast.
China has long tried to filter out anti-government content, and blocked U.S. sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. But jumping Chinas Great Firewall isnt hard. Internet users willing to pay US$10 or less a month can often buy access to a virtual private network (VPN).
So far, China has yet to clamp down on VPN use, and only rarely blocked access to them. In March 2011, several VPN providers reported service problems in China, at a time when censors were trying to stamp out references to the pro-democracy Jasmine Revolution protests in many countries.
Lately, however, the government has been calling for greater control of the Internet. In November, China said it wanted to tighten its grip over local social networking services, citing threats to national stability.
Authorities have also regularly waged campaigns to clean up so-called rumors on Sina-Weibo, a Twitter-like service. Following the knife attack in Kunming, Chinas public security bureau said it had arrested 45 people for allegedly spreading false online information about other impending terrorist attacks.
Michael Kan covers IT, telecom and Internet in China for the IDG News Service. More by Michael Kan
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China blames terrorism on technologies to bypass Internet censorship
"I know there's a risk to saying this, but I do not care now, because it seems normal that I speak inappropriately," he said.
Director Feng Xiaogang (Rex Features)
Feng Xiaogang, one of China's most famous directors, also hit out at the dead hand of the censors. "Don't make directors tremble with fear every day like [they are] walking on thin ice," he said.
"Is the patriotism, political judgment and artistic taste of the censors better than ours, the directors?" he added.
"We don't have a 'film censorship law'; to kill a film or not depends on examiners. Is their patriotism, political judgment and artistic taste better than ours, the directors?" he said.
Two of Mr Feng's films, Assembly (2007) and Aftershock (2010), had to be changed to comply with censorship and Assembly was nearly banned.