Online Media Representatives Face Jail

OSDNBoss writes "According to the US Watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists a total of 134 journalists were in jail on December 1, 49 of which were Internet journalists. China leads the way with the highest number in jail. I'm sure the censors have already blocked Slashdot and other news and opinion sites in the countries mentioned. It begs the question, however, as the blogosphere grows are online journalists and editors more or less protected than their print and TV counterparts?" From the article: "China is challenging the notion that the Internet is impossible to control or censor, and if it succeeds there will be far-ranging implications, not only for the medium but for press freedom all over the world."

Criteria for traditional journalism

What criteria must one meet to be considered a traditional journalist, entitled to the same protections as, say, a reporter for a big newspaper?

If I, as an online journalist or blogger, print my missives on dead trees and distribute them in some manner, do

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If I, as an online journalist or blogger, print my missives on dead trees and distribute them in some manner, does that count?

It helps.

Helps even more if you have more than one person responsible for the publication. Larger circulation is also a fact

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Writing under your real name is also a criteria, in my opinion, and is what sets traditional newsmedia apart from the vast majority of bloggers.

Readers

As a traditional journalist on paper and now on the Internet, I would say that you're a journalist if you have readers.

I started an informal email newsletter, and whenever I had to establish my bona fides, I would say, "I have 600 readers in your field."

Dont think it matters..

All the jailed journalists from countries without free speech or freedom of the press would have been jailed for what they did reguardless of the medium (classical newspaper journalist, televised, or internet)

Our media are SO much better

NOT ...

See :
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/11/ap-is-bu sted-uses-bogus-source-for.html [blogspot.com]

Do you think something like this stops them from falsifying news ?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061129/ap_on_re_mi_ea /iraq_revenge_attacks [yahoo.com]

Think again. Obviously looking at an actual live video feed in the iraqi capital will reveal a quite normal life, with markets, loads of people ... Doesn't sound like a civil war at _all_ actually.

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/bagCam.html [foxnews.com]

hmmmmm ....

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>Obviously looking at an actual live video feed in the iraqi capital will reveal a quite normal life

People are resilient, but check what is happening at the city morgue, Riverbend's blog, or even the official statistics on violent incidents.

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I have to agree that there *is* a problem. However, look at our newspapers.

You'd say it's a full-scale battlefield (especially "sadr city") with corpses everywhere, no functioning city etc.

In reality ... you'd find public transportation is operational.

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This is a webcam ... making it lie would be kinda hard (VERY hard), even for a journalist.

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Conservative figures at iraqbodycount.net.

If you refuse to believe the results of the Johns Hopkins survey, check this out from their methodology section: "... many roads were not under the control of the Government of Iraq or coalition forces".

But that wa

Co-operation will be beat censorship.

Here's a modest proposal. Publish lists of censored sites and then encourage many many blogs/entertainment/poker/pr0n/history/shopping sites to set links and mirroring to slip past the blocked IP addresses. Then when you go to even not very popular sites,

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I feel your pain. Why is it that nobody these days can use the phrase 'begs the question' appropriately?

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Must we do this every time someone uses the phrase "begs the question"?

"More recently, "begs the question" has been used as a synonym for "invites the question" or "raises the question", or to indicate that "the question really ought to be addressed". I

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I think the problem people have with misused words/phrases is that as the language evolves to accept the distorted meaning, it reduces our ability to make nuanced distinctions. Reduced granularity if you will.

Taken far enough, you end up with Newspeak [wikipedia.org]

In al

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I think the problem people have with misused words/phrases is that as the language evolves to accept the distorted meaning, it reduces our ability to make nuanced distinctions. Reduced granularity if you will.

Not true. Languages do lose distinctions over t

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Is anyone else tired of seeing the word blogosphere? whats wrong with "blogging community"?

It still contains a variant of the 'word' "blog"?

Blocking slashdot?

Last time I was in China (admittedly 11 months ago), I could access Slashdot just fine from China (and that was mainland china; Beijing, Shanghai and Xian, as well as Hong Kong)..

Learning curve

China is on a steep learning curve. They are trying to transition from a massivly centralized controlled society where everyone works for the government. To a society where indivuals are allowed to make business decisions. The old guard allows no questioning or criticism of any authority. The new world will be far different from that. The old timers are trying to hold on to their power, and the only tool they have left is censorship of dissent.

Will censoring stop the transition? No, it will slow down the transition, and probably cause a softer and safer transition (Compared to Iraq where the opressive government suddenly ceased to exist, and sponsored anarchists are trying to take over).

The Chinese "Old Guard" are trying to form a Facist economy (where government works in partnership with business, kind of like the US social services), and that will likely happen, I think the free economy will eventually prevail and squeeze out that Facist one. The history of Socalism/Communism is of a political machine fully funding every inefficiency to the ruin of society. The newer leaders educated in the scientific method will make decisions based on wether things work, not strictly following sanctified procedure based on the musings of a 19th century economic idealist.

Søren Kierkegaard

Anytime I think of heroic journalists, I'm reminded of a Kierkegaard line from his journal:

[I]f there is any suggestion of shooting people down, then let it be the journalists for the way in which they have used and profited by the simple classes. God knows I am not bloodthirsty...but nevertheless, I should be ready to take the responsibility upon me, in Gods name, of giving the order to fire if I could first of all make absolutely and conscientiously sure that there was not a single man standing in front of the rifles, not a single creature, who was not--a journalist. That is said of the class as a whole.

Before you start throwing stones at China, et. al.

From the article:

'The committee said the United States imprisoned two journalists without charge or trial -- Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, now held for eight months in Iraq, and Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj, jailed for five years