China

2011

  

Chinese writer-dissident given nine years for online posts

New York, December 23, 2011 — The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns China’s harsh sentencing of online journalist and activist Chen Wei, who was handed a nine-year prison term on Friday for “inciting subversion.”

Read More ›

In China, real people vs. Internet minders

In the next three months, users of China’s microblog weibo.com — “weibo” is the generic Chinese term for Twitter-like platforms — run by the huge sina.com (the English site is here) news portal, entertainment and blogging site, will have to start providing their real-world identities to the site, instead of simply being able to register.…

Read More ›

Chinese journalist released early from prison

New York, December 14, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of jailed Chinese journalist Huang Jinqiu. The journalist was freed on October 20, but delayed the announcement until Tuesday because authorities had told him not to seek publicity at the time, according to news reports.

Read More ›

Imprisonments jump worldwide, and Iran is worst

Stark regional differences are seen as jailings grow significantly in the Middle East and North Africa. Dozens of journalists are held without charge, many in secret prisons. A CPJ special report

Read More ›

Uighur journalists who covered protests such as this one in 2009 were sentenced to harsh prison terms. (AP)

China’s jailed Uighurs: Out of sight, not out of mind

For the first time in more than a decade, China is not the world’s worst jailer of the press in CPJ’s annual census of imprisoned journalists. Among the 27 jailed in China, one group has seen a massive jump in imprisonments. In another first since CPJ began taking its census, more than half of those…

Read More ›

Defending the middle ground of online journalism

It’s easy to use polarizing descriptions of online news-gathering. It’s the domain of citizen journalists, blogging without pay and institutional support, or it’s a sector filled with the digital works of “mainstream media” facing financial worries and struggling to offer employees the protection they once provided. But there is a growing middle ground: trained reporters…

Read More ›

A new set of media regulations in China is attempting to control the growing influence of social media users. (AFP)

China’s new rules step up state control of reporting

China’s latest media regulations, issued Thursday in a bid to take some steam out of microblogs that increasingly drive the country’s news agenda, signal an increased role for the state in drafting and enforcing press standards.

Read More ›

Keeping a website alive behind the Great Firewall

Wednesday’s post, “Advice for colleagues on the digital front lines,” offered practical advice for keeping a website up and running in a hostile political environment. But such measures are not universally applicable. Sky Canaves, CPJ’s new East Asia and Internet consultant in Hong Kong, sent this reality check for Internet writers in China, where tighter…

Read More ›

It's not clear whether Beijing will require licensing of social media sites or users to register under their real names. (Reuters)

Planning the next steps in Chinese media control

In the latest sign of increasing pressure on Chinese companies to tighten control of the Internet, Chinese authorities convened an unusual seminar in Beijing for senior executives of 39 major enterprises involved in Internet services, technology and telecommunications.

Read More ›

Tibetan writers imprisoned in China

New York, October 31, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the imprisonment of two Tibetan writers, one of whom was sentenced after a year of detention without trial, according to reports.

Read More ›

2011