Censorship in the online world

Censorship has been known to be the activity of looking carefully at published material and removing parts which are thought to be offensive or, often, politically dangerous (BBC Vocabulary 2007). Internet censorship carries the same meaning although it only happens on the Internet. There are a few countries which practices pervasive censorship according to the Reporters without Borders (RSF) and the OpenNet Initiative. Some of the nations include Cuba, Myanmar, Iran, North Korea, Syria and the People’s Republic of China.

Reporters without Borders

China however is pretty well known for their strict Internet regulations. Recently, China blocked more than 18,000 websites which were deemed “illegal”. Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia was blocked by the Chinese government since 18 October 2005 due to the government’s aim to further tighten controls on online free expression (IFEX 2005). Wikipedia was beforehand blocked in June and September 2004 by the Chinese authorities because of rebellious political content.

Wikipedia was banned from the Chinese cyberworld.

Even Google, Blogger.com and Wordpress were blocked off the Chinese Internet. Recently, the Chinese authorities laid their hands on RSS (Real Simple Syndication) (Cheng, J 2007) which is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites in order to widen the influence of the censorship.

RSS were also banned by the Chinese authorities.

In Jordan, the decision by the Department of Press and Publications to allow censorship on electronic sites has raised controversy in the country. Journalists and other media opposed this decision as it threatens journalistic freedom in Jordan.

Censorship normally happens because of cultural differences. Something which is a norm in a country might be offensive in another. Schirato and Yell (1996) stated that “context functions as cultural frames within which to make sense of texts”. This shows that cultural differences may create different opinions and cast unlike perspectives on the same issue.

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Reference:

Cheng, J 2007, “China's Great Firewall turns its attention to RSS feeds”, ars technica, viewed on 7 October 2007. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071004-chinas-great-firewall-turns-its-attention-to-rss-feeds.html

Ford, P 2007, “Why did China shut down 18,401 websites?”, CBS News, viewed on 11 October 2007. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/25/tech/main3295146.shtml

International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX), “Authorities block access to online encyclopaedia”, IFEX, viewed on 11 October 2007. http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/69963

Schirato, T. & Yell, S. 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: An introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW, pp. 90-117

The Blue Plague, 2007, BBC Vocabulary, viewed on 10 October 2007. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1758_blue_plaque/vocpops/Ram_Mohun_Roy.shtml