Pixton - Censorship Comic

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Dalai Lama slams China's Censorship Policy

Dalai Lama slams China's 'immoral censorship' - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English
Click link above to watch 2 min video.

I agree, censorship is wrong and a violation of human rights. We should have the freedom to question and search all information.

Causes

This post is about the censorship and speech restraints facing the Chinese internet, in particular Google. I argue that Google is censored because the CPC controls information passed through the Internet. This is an important issue for Chinese citizens because they are unable to make informed decisions about a number of civil rights, political, and spiritual issues. Chinese citizens are unaware of the extent to which they are being censored. This is an important issue to everyone because censorship deprives people of control over their own lives. If we allow censorship to continue in China, it means that we are not respecting their human right to access to knowledge and education. This post will explain why the Internet is censored in China.

First of all, the CPC has been successful in manipulating information presented on the internet. The CPC has created a list of “black words” that can’t be searched or published online. Words such as “Tiananmen Square”, “Taiwan”, “Tibet”, “democracy”, and lately, “Egypt” are black words[1]. The CPC wants to eliminate chances of reformist or separatist movements that would jeopardize the ruling government, which consequently keeps the population in the dark regarding “sensitive” topics.

The CPC’s censorship is seen as a measure to maintain the rule of the government and suffocate any chances of an unapproved reformist or separatist ideas from spreading. Google was introduced to China in 1994. Therefore China was a “latecomer” to the popular global “network of networks” [2]. Google as well as other western world websites signed the "Public Pledge on Self Discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry" in order to operate in China. The CPC could at anytime remove what they considered to be unacceptable. This “great firewall of china” means that citizens can’t access any information on the "black words"[1]. The CPC’s fear that the public would discover the country’s past failures led to the tight and constricting internet laws on Google.

The Chinese Parliament Building - goblog4me.blogspot.com

The CPC holds a vast amount of moral control over the Chinese population. Without the ability to research and question, the people of China no longer choose what to deem correct and incorrect. This gives the government a chance to determine all the cultural and economical values they wish to obtain. Google in the Western world is the largest search engine used to interact with global issues and research any given subject. China is threatened by the power of Western influence corrupting their system. Censorship occurs when one a dominant force holds a great deal of control. Google was in control of too much information; thusly it was terminated throughout the country.

Backgrounder

Censorship is the practice of examining published materials and suppressing any materials deemed "unacceptable". This gives control of the information circulating in a society to one dominant power holder. The most reoccurring sources of censorship are: Moral, Military, Political, Religious and Corporate. Censorship is a violation of human rights; this interruption in freedom of speech is most concerning in China. The Communist Party of China (CPC) exercises censorship in order to keep the country's power within the government. 

 China has blocked news broadcasts, websites, books, music, and the liberty to speak freely. Searching “black words” such as: Democracy, Tienanmen Square, Taiwan, Tibet, Human Rights and Egypt can be considered a criminal offence and any one in violation can spend up to 10yrs in jail. This censorship helps prevent protesters or reformists from voicing their opinions. China has put a massive cultural value on success and business growth. Because of this, China has censored everything from food safety problems to the country's restricting laws.

The censorship in china is a complex issue that comes with many layers. The filters built into society prevent any discovery of government’s failures or violations of rights. Web sites in China are required to employ people who monitor and delete objectionable content as well as "guide" bulletin board Web exchanges in the government's favour. It is most likely that the people of China are unaware of the intense censor they face daily. Although there have been attempts to bring attention to this heavy subject, the tight reins held by the government have continued to overpower all else. The CPC implicates a diverse range of methods to induce journalists to censor themselves rather than risk punishment. The more the people fear their government, the less likely there is of a revolution. Strategies include jailing, fines and demotions. Authorities also sue journalists for breaching topics that are labeled as private matter. It is not uncommon for journalists who overstep boundaries to be imprisoned. As of December 2010, China was tied with Iran for the most jailed journalists in a single country.

 

Overall, the great firewall of china has let the CPC mandate censorship for a very long time. But as the contemporary issue of cyberspace seeps into the picture; China's right to freedom of speech remains uncertain.