Exacting Words

Besides offering a concise and appropriate representation of the times, some quotes are so incisive that they make a step back from the clarity of the moment nearly impossible.

“The Iranian government should remember what is happening in China. Nearly 30 thousand people are currently employed to control Chinese weblogs."
     - Iranian blogger's response to new laws requiring websites and blogs to be registered with the government

When the people in Tehran think you're worse off, it's clearly time to reevaluate the situation. Fortunately though, the bloggers in China are just as pissed as their Iranian counterparts and they will continue to remain defiant despite a call by their president for further regulations on the web.

Interwoven with this issue, has been that of the part played by American companies, such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Besides restricting access to forbidden information in compliance with Chinese law, all of these companies have turned over information that has led to the prosecution and jailing of dissidents. It is certainly more beneficial to have these companies operating in China than kept outside for not obeying local laws. For instance, disparities between our Google platform and Google.cn can raise enough eyebrows about censorship, that is, if the user is able to access both, as some reports state that the US Google platform was only available in China for a month last year. But, it is tough to stomach the gradual advances being made by these companies while they contribute to blatant human rights violations. It is somewhat promising that they recently agreed to new codes of conduct. Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders were two of the groups that comprised the panel that drew up the guidelines. Of course, we'll have to wait and see, but bloggers everywhere can feel a little bit better.

Anyone who attended this past week's Chinese New Year Spectacular at the Merriam Theater might be aware of the organizers' long time fight against censorship in China.

For a while, New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) transmitted the only uncensored news feed to China. After the French based satelite company Eutelsat refused to renew their contract in 2005, NTDTV could no longer reach mainland viewers. Certainly though, they have carried on the fight, thus continuing to irritate the Chinese government, which explains why there are no stops to the homeland (depending on whether or not you count Taiwan) on their 29 city world tour. If you're upset about missing the tour, jump on the Chinatown bus and head down to D.C. where they're playing tonight and tomorrow. Or you can head to The Big Sexy, NYC, where NTDTV headquarters is located, to catch them from Feb. 14th to the 17th.

Photo by Flickr user charles.hope