20 Jun 11 | Uncategorized
This is a cross post from Guido Fawkes
It is not often that Guido is invited to speak to an audience of Communists, so the invitation to speak to twenty or so visiting Chinese Communist Party propagandists and Information Ministry officials was hard to resist. The audience at the seminar included security officials, it would be fair to say that this was not a home crowd. Almost as bad as a Goldsmith’s Media Studies audience, but not as left-wing. (more…)
24 May 11 | Asia and Pacific, China
Journalist Song Zhibiao has been suspended by the Southern Metropolis Daily for writing an editorial remembering the Sichuan earthquake, referring also to the dissident artist Ai Weiwei.
The Chinese editorial not only referred to Ai Weiwei’s installations, such as the sunflower seeds in London’s Tate Modern, but also his campaign to find out numbers and names of schoolchildren who had died in the earthquake in 2008, a task handled without transparency by the government.
Deutsche Welle, a German newspaper known for its international output, reported that a member of the editorial team at SMD sent a microblog on Sina:
[Song Zhibiao] is temporarily being suspended. Unfortunately it will be a good long while before he can write another editorial or comment article.
The same DW report said that it might be a case of self-censorship as the Chinese Communist Party’s Propaganda chiefs Li Changchun and Liu Yunshan are to visit Guangdong province, where the Southern Media Group is based.
The paper wanted to make sure that nothing could implicate them in a crackdown. The same report quoted a journalist at the paper, who said they are working in very sensitive times.
An editorial employee told UNCUT today that Song is not taking interviews, but biding his time whilst a self-criticism that has been submitted to the provincial propaganda department is passed. Once that is over, the exact terms of the suspension, or punishment, will become clear.
Last week the Chinese government announced that Ai Weiwei’s company Fake evaded huge amounts of tax as well as destroyed accounting documents. Ai Weiwei’s sentence for the so-called crime has not yet been delivered and his four friends and employees remain missing.
17 May 11 | Events
A panel discussion to coincide with the installation of Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads at Somerset House
Monday 23rd May 17
Portico Rooms, Somerset House
19.00-20.30
Padraig Reidy, Index on Censorship’s News Editor, will join a panel comprising Dr Anne Alexander of Cambridge University, Dr Joss Hands, author of @ is for Activism and Sunny Hundal, Editor of Liberal Conspiracy blog, to debate the wider impact of the internet and social media in particular on the practice of 21st century politics and the nature of protest movements.
The upheavals sweeping the Arab world have been hailed by some as the Twitter revolutions. But just how influential a role has social media really played in the fall of dictatorships?
Buy tickets here.
16 May 11 | Asia and Pacific, China
Last Friday, a newspaper editorial musing on the missing artist Ai Weiwei was blocked online. The editorial, which was appeared in the Southern Metropolis Daily, marked the third anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake, an event that Ai investigated. The Guardian translated part of the editorial that reflected on Ai and the deaths of schoolchildren in the disaster:
On the day of mourning we called them home and wished them peace. We gathered together all the human evidence of them we could. We read their names together … We did so much, and yet we did too little … We can but present the steel zodiac, offer up porcelain sunflower seeds, symbolic memorials to your lives once so tangible.
The sunflower seeds clearly refer to Ai’s ongoing installation at Tate Modern. David Bandurski, editor of China Media Project pointed out that in a bold move, one of China news portals, Tencent, had republished the editorial on their online editorial pages. But today (May 16) the editorial can no longer be found on the site.
Last night Lu Qing, Ai’s wife, was taken to an undisclosed location and allowed to see her husband. During the 15 minute conversation she received assurances that Ai has access to his diabetes medication and is receiving regular food and care. He wasn’t in handcuffs and despite the fact that prisoners are usually shaved he still has his signature beard.
