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Alert

New wave of Internet censorship

(RSF/IFEX) - In a letter to Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, RSF condemned the detention without trial of Huang Qi, who is charged with disseminating "subversive information" on the Internet. The organisation asked the prime minister to do everything possible to ensure Huang's immediate release. RSF also protested the new wave of censorship against Internet forums and websites accused of being critical. "While at least five newspapers have been punished by the authorities because of critical articles, the regime is again attacking the Internet," declared RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. "All of Beijing's promises to ensure total freedom for foreign journalists during the 2008 Olympics Games are very illusory when a wave of repression like this occurs," added Ménard.




According to information obtained by RSF, the trial of Huang, creator of the 6-4tianwang.com website, has been postponed indefinitely. The cyberdissident, charged with "dissemination of subversive information on the Internet", has been detained since 3 June 2000. His trial started last February but was postponed because of his health. He collapsed during the first hearing. According to his lawyer and his wife, Huang was beaten during his interrogation. The trial was due to start again on 27 June, but a spokesman of the Chengdu court (Sichuan province, southwest of the country) announced that the trial was postponed again because of "the Chinese Communist Party eightieth anniversary." Huang is accused of publishing articles denouncing the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 1989 and also posting texts by Chinese dissidents.

On 23 June, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy announced that authorities had again censored some Internet forums. One run by the "Southern Weekend" newspaper was closed on 18 June because it contained numerous criticisms of the government's decision to fire two journalists who work for the weekly. Moreover, an online chatroom of the Xici Hutong website called "Democracy and Human Rights" was closed on 22 June because Internet users condemned the repression against critical media. One million people reportedly visit this website daily.

Again according to the Information Centre, the authorities also closed the online magazine "Hot Topic", sent to an e-mail list of more than 235,000 Chinese Internet users. The magazine allegedly posts articles which are critical of the government. Finally, Chinese police statistics show that authorities have closed at least 8,000 Internet cafes in the last two months.