Freedom of speech in CHINA going to the toilet ?... again.

This is an very interesting article I found on http://www.torrentspy.com based on an article in CNSNEWS.COM

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Monday, September 26 2005

China Targets 'Unhealthy' Online News Stories - [General]
Submitted by monktallica on 9/26/2005 8:30:19 PM 17 Comments

Authorities in China, where at least three journalists have been jailed this year for political "crimes" involving the Internet, clamped down further at the weekend by introducing new regulations for online news services.

In an effort to control Chinese Internet users' access to views it considers harmful, the communist government is limiting small sites' ability to publish news items, whether self-written or taken from other sources.

Online news sites must be "directed toward serving the people and socialism and insist on correct guidance of public opinion for maintaining national and public interests," the official Xinhua news agency said.

Any Chinese entity wanting to publish news online will have to have at least $1.2 million in registered capital and employ at least five professional news editors, each with three years or more working experience in traditional media.

Under the new rules, which went into effect immediately after they were made public by Xinhua, any online news service found to be reporting false or distorted information could be fined up to $3,700.

Companies who get into trouble with the state regulators will be unable to provide online news for a two-year period.

"Many false news stories without any sources are spread through the net, which can harm the public and national interests," a spokesman for the Ministry of Information Industry told a press conference.

"We need to better regulate the online news services with the emergence of so many unhealthy news stories that will easily mislead the public."

Although China Daily said the government sought to block "fabricated information, pornography, gambling or violence," Beijing also views with suspicion opinions sympathetic towards pro-democracy campaigns, Taiwanese or Tibetan independence, unregulated Christian worship and the Falun Gong meditation movement.

Mainland China has the world's fastest-growing pool of people with Internet access, now exceeding 100 million and second only to the United States, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

The new regulations come on top of layers of previously-imposed ones, including strict and regular registration requirements and restrictions on what may be written in online forums or web logs.

Websites are monitored, foreign news sites are frequently blocked, thousands of cyber cafes have been closed down, and campus online discussion groups have been closed to all non-students. Those who do use these sites have to provide their real names when registering.

A particularly controversial government regulation requires Internet service providers to hold onto private user information in case police want it for identification purposes.

The ramifications were seen in the recent case of Shi Tao, a journalist jailed for 10 years after the authorities tracked him down, using information allegedly provided by the American Internet giant, Yahoo.

If you want to know more about the FALUN DAFA movement go to http://www.falundafa.org/

Just for you to know FALUN DAFA is not an ideology but more a meditative peacefull practice easy to learn. In their website you can even download the videos of the movements and the music used. It's really something worth to try.

Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa) is an ancient form of qigong, the practice of refining the body and mind through special exercises and meditation. Like tai chi, qigong is a vital part of many people's lives in Asia; almost every Chinese park is brimming by the break of dawn with people practicing these arts.

Description from their site

Learn more about the tibet here: http://www.friends-o...g.nz/tibet.html

Yeah.. but its really communistic.. 'stalin style'