Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans fronti�res
http://rsf-chinese.org/
CHINA
All references to Tiananmen Square massacre closely censored for 20 years
Twenty years later, it is still impossible for the Chinese media to refer freely to the
ruthless suppression of China’s pro-democracy movement in June 1989. References
to the demonstrations that took place throughout China for several weeks and the
deaths of hundreds of students and workers at the hands of the army on 4 June 1989
are still strictly censored in the media and on the Internet. The information blackout
has been enforced so effectively for 20 years that most young Chinese are
completely unaware of this major event.
When Chinese Internet users search for “4 June” in the photos section of Baidu, the
country’s most popular search engine, they get this message: “The search does not
comply with laws, regulations and policies.” The same search in the video section
elicits this message: “Sorry, no video corresponds to your search.” If you do an
ordinary Internet search for “4 June” with Baidu, you just get official Chinese
statements about the “events of 4 June.”
The Chinese army’s brutal crackdown on the student revolt in Beijing’s Tiananmen
Square on 4 June 1989 ended contemporary China’s most important pro-democracy
movement. A free press was one of the main demands of the protesters as well as
many journalists and journalism professors. Some are still paying the price in terms
of administrative punishments, constant police surveillance or forced exile.
Several journalists, including Shi Tao, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for
sending an email about the Tiananmen Square anniversary in 2004, are still in prison
for referring to the massacre. Free expression activist Liu Xiaobo, one of the leading
figures of the 1989 movement, was recently re-arrested. Cyber-dissident Huang Qi,
who has long campaigned for the June 1989 victims to be recognised, has been held
without trial in Chengdu since June 2008 and is now seriously ill.
The censorship imposed after the “Beijing Spring” has never been relaxed. The
Propaganda Department and the political police have established a system of
extremely strict censorship. Self-censorship and the ignorance of the youngest
generation of journalists do the rest. Why are so many resources spent on continuing
to cover up a 20-year-old event when China has evolved in so many ways since
1989? “Because the Chinese leaders know they have blood on their hands,” says
Renee Xia of Chinese Human Rights Defenders. “They fear that if the truth comes to
light, the government will be under pressure to bring those responsible for this crime
to justice.”
These days, the censors are concentrating their efforts on the Internet. Reporters
Without Borders recently conducted tests that confirm the level of online censorship.
This is the results page, with the message “Sorry, we have found nothing relating to
your request,” that appears when you search for “4 June” in Baidu’s video section.
- Re: ZT All references to Tiananmen Square massacre closely censored for 20 yearsposted on 06/03/2009
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(c) 2010 Maya Chilam Foundation