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Was it something we said? China blocks FT Tech Blog
July 13, 2007
China’s policy of blocking overseas websites has been noted here on more than one occasion, but it still comes as a surprise to find that FT Tech Blog itself appears to have become a victim of the government’s shadowy censors.
In recent days it has not been possible to access this part of the ft.com website from Beijing and Shanghai, with page requests just timing out - the usual symptom of a blocked site. The blog loads fine if accessed through an offshore proxy site designed to evade the censor. And a quick check on the block-checker site greatfirewallofchina.org (see picture) also suggests we have been blacklisted.
Why is this happening and how long might the block last? There is no way of knowing, since China has never even revealed who is responsible for website blocking decisions or what criteria they use. But Beijing does seem to have a particular sensitivity toward blogs that discuss censorship, and internet "management" is a top priority for the government at the moment.
The action against a single corner of the FT’s site is also a reminder of the growing technical sophistication of the commissars. They are already targeting particular entries in Wikipedia. How long before the news sections of international papers start getting cut up by the censors’ digital scissors?
While every form of censorship is reprehensible, it would be unfair to single out the Beijing regime for this form of abuse. You cannot visit Orkut sites in my city of Mumbai in India, which are allegedly derogatory of the ancestors of the caste to which the State Minister responsible for law and order belongs. Al Jazeerah is not available on any cable TV service in the city. I suspect that the western media have not given fair coverage to the ruling establishment in Iran either. There are many subtle methods employed globally to shut out inconvenient views. Besides, the very ownership of media for private gain, excludes the poor through weapons of expensive subscriptions.
Posted by: Dr S Banerji | July 14th, 2007 at 3:44 am | Report this commentthe financial times is not a peer-reviewed journal, hence its accuracy and neutrality is of a low standard. as you can see from this correspondent’s bias.
Posted by: Jonny | July 15th, 2007 at 9:04 pm | Report this commentThe FT Tech blog may or may not be a victim of the great firewall, but if users in China cannot acces the site there may be a different explanation; FT.com is the most notoriously unreliable site in my bookmark list. Every other day I have difficulties opening links to articles on ft.com for hours on end… And I am not in China.
Posted by: S.I. Aarsaether | July 16th, 2007 at 6:27 am | Report this commentNot a peer-reviewed journal? Damn right, it is a newspaper, and as such readers would not want to wait years to read a piece of news. And peers also have their views.
Posted by: maximax | July 16th, 2007 at 10:19 am | Report this commentAl-Jazeerah not available in Mumbai? Can’t see videos of kidnap victims having their heads chopped off? Well boo hoo!
Posted by: elizabeth schumann | July 16th, 2007 at 11:59 am | Report this commentgreatfirewallofchina.org is FAKE
While great fire wall of china does exist, greatfirewallofchina.org is a fake. I reied a couple of sites which are accessible in China,but the site all shows they are blocked.
Posted by: bunytu | July 16th, 2007 at 12:00 pm | Report this commentThe US National Security Agency (NSA) has the world’s most sophisticated internet monitoring system in the world.
Posted by: james falk | July 16th, 2007 at 8:56 pm | Report this commentHistory of China
History of Great China
Posted by: History of China | July 31st, 2007 at 10:01 am | Report this comment