permaculture

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

All independent news about Tibet is blocked by Chinese censors.
At the same time, Chinese censors have passed racist comments
on a number of websites that calls for the murder of the "separatists."
   
  Does this remind us of the genocide in Rwanda or of Goebles?
   
  Read the details in the following article from the Paris based 
organisation Reporters Without Borders
   
  http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=26248
   
  China 17 March 2008
   
  Crackdown in Tibet away from the eye of the media in new violation of 
Olympics pledge
   
  Reporters Without Borders today strongly condemned steps taken by Beijing 
to prevent media coverage of demonstrations and an ongoing crackdown in Tibet 
and in provinces where Tibetans live. Foreign journalists have been stopped 
from entering the province and tight censorship has been imposed on the 
Internet and in the Chinese press.
   
  The authorities have since 12 March refused to grant foreign correspondents 
permits to enter Tibet and at least 25 journalists, including 15 from Hong 
Kong, have reportedly been expelled from Tibet or Tibetan areas.
   
  "The freedom of movement for foreign journalists had been one of the few 
positive developments ahead of the Olympic Games, but this is now being 
flouted by the Chinese government facing Tibetan protests," the worldwide 
press freedom organisation said.
  "Yet again the Chinese government is trampling on the promises it made 
linked to the Olympics and has preparing the ground to crackdown on the 
Tibetan revolt in the absence of witnesses."
   
  "Online censorship is also veering into racism, with comment items urging 
the killing of Tibetan separatists, while all independent news on the events 
is being censored," the organisation added.
   
  The authorities have refused entry to Tibet to foreign correspondents since 
12 March and tourists are also being denied access, for security reasons, 
according to the authorities. One European correspondent confirmed to 
Reporters Without Borders that requests for permission to enter Tibet faxed 
to the Beijing authorities have gone unanswered. Officials responsible for 
giving permits for Tibet stopped answering phone calls from 14 March.
   
  The Foreign Correspondents Club of China said at least 25 journalists, 15 
of them from Hong Kong, had been expelled from Tibet or Tibetan areas, 
particularly Xiahe in Gansu province.
  Jonathan Watts, correspondent for British daily The Guardian, was today 
prevented from going through a police check point in this border province. 
"After checking my passport, the police told me to go back and I had to leave 
the region. They had obviously expected the arrival of foreign journalists, 
because one of the policemen spoke English," he said. At least six other 
foreign media have been forced to leave the regions where many Tibetans live. 
And Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that foreigners were being refused 
train and bus tickets in Gansu province or to be allowed to stay in Tongren, 
in the neighbouring province of Qinghai, where large numbers of Tibetans live.
   
  A few foreign journalists are still inside Tibet but are unable to move 
around normally because the cities are under police and army control. A 
reporter with The Economist, who is in the capital, Lhasa, had obtained 
permission to travel to Tibet before the start of the demonstrations.
   
  The decision of the authorities to close Tibet to the press is in 
contravention of the rules for foreign media adopted in January 2007, ahead 
of the Olympic Games. And in an introduction to the "Guide to services for 
foreign journalists during the Olympic Games in Beijing", the city’s mayor 
Liu Qi, wrote : "The freedom of foreign journalists to carry out their 
professional work, will be guaranteed".
   
  Nearly 15 Hong Kong journalists representing at least six media were 
expelled from Lhasa, accused by the authorities of "illegal reporting". They 
were then forcibly taken to the airport and put on a flight to Chengdu in 
Sichuan province. "They were not very polite. They came and looked at our 
computers, searching for video footage," Dickson Lee, a photographer on the 
South China Morning Post, told AFP. They had earlier got footage out of Lhasa 
of the riots which left nearly 80 dead, according to the Tibetan government 
in exile. The Hong Kong Journalists’ Association (HKJA) has called on the 
authorities to reconsider the expulsions.
   
  The Chinese authorities also forced most foreign tourists in Tibet to leave 
the province. Some of them who witnessed the first demonstrations had 
provided photos and footage of the protests and the crackdown. It is more and 
more difficult for the foreign press to gather news, particularly about the 
hunting down of demonstrators because telephone connections have been cut in 
Tibet. Foreign-based Tibetan websites, particularly phayul.com, have posted a 
number of accounts and footage of the events, thanks to networks within Tibet.
   
  The video-sharing website Youtube has been censored since 16 March after 
footage was posted of demonstrations in the streets of Lhasa. The message, 
"incorrect address" appears when anyone tries to open it. The Youtube videos 
are also inaccessible from the website Google Video. The BBC, CNN and Yahoo 
News websites have been regularly inaccessible over the past few days.
   
  Anyone searching for Tibet in Chinese can see videos on YouTube.cn and on 
others web sites which are hostile to the Tibetans along with insulting 
remarks about "separatists Tibetans" which are not censored. Chinese 
video-sharing platforms, the most popular of which are http://www.tudou.com 
and http://www.56com, have had all news referring to the latest events 
deleted. On the other hand one can find news websites on which racist 
comments have been posted about Tibetans, calling for the murder of the 
"separatists". 
   
  Reporters Without Borders has been able to confirm that the cyber-censors 
have not been deleting them, although all messages referring to Tibet are 
undergoing advance filtering.
  Finally, broadcasts within China of international television, CNN and BBC, 
were cut by the Chinese authorities on several occasions during showing of 
footage of events in Tibet. While official television has been showing only 
film of Tibetans attacking Chinese businesses, without referring to Tibetan 
casualties and the army deployment.
   
  A disastrous state of press freedom in Tibet
  Trying to get access to unofficial news is very hard for Tibetans. All 
media are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party or public bodies. A few 
underground publications run by Tibetans, particularly monks, are circulated 
secretly.
   
  Chinese and Tibetan journalists in this Himalayan province are forced to 
comply with state directives much more than in the rest of China. Only 
articles on official religious demonstrations are allowed. Party members are 
to be found in all key posts of the administration and media in Tibet, 
ensuring there is no chance of any editorial freedom. Articles are submitted 
to "journalist-censors" before being published.
   
  Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA), based in the United 
States, along with Voice of Tibet (VOT), based in India, are the three main 
radio stations that broadcast programmes to Tibet in the Tibetan language, 
but these programmes are systematically jammed.
   
  Thanks to their acquisition of ALLISS aerials made by the French company 
Thalès, the authorities have been able to boost their capacity to jam 
broadcasts, particularly in Tibet. Radio Free Asia has as a result been 
forced to use around a score of different frequencies to try to get round 
this censorship. During an on-the-spot investigation in Tibet in 2006, 
representatives of Reporters Without Borders found that the Chinese 
authorities constantly tried to scramble broadcasts using thudding sounds and 
music. In Lhasa, RFA and VOT programmes in Tibetan were drowned out by 
broadcasts in Chinese. Many monks do continue to secretly listen to these 
broadcasts inside their monasteries.
   
  The Chinese authorities are particularly watchful about Internet use in 
Tibet. Identity cards are systematically checked in Cyber-cafés and several 
websites and discussion forums were closed in 2007. One instance was the 
closure in December 2007 of the most popular discussion forums with Tibetan 
students (http://www.tibet123.com).
   
  © Reporters Without Borders - 47, rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris - France

       
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===This looked rather interesting, and may affect things a bit.  I do
wish that they had not made things proprietary...

"A strain of bacteria accidentally found in the Chesapeake Bay more
than 20 years ago -- a bug that decomposes everything from algae to
newspapers to crab shells -- could help produce cheaper fuel,
according to scientists at the University of Maryland"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/09/AR2008030901983.html?hpid=topnews

                                            Geoffrey Wendel