Online Media Representatives Face Jail 27
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 (Score:1, Interesting)
If I, as an online journalist or blogger, print my missives on dead trees and distribute them in some manner, does that count?
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It helps.
Helps even more if you have more than one person responsible for the publication. Larger circulation is also a factor. Not quite sure why this sort of thing should matter but the reality is that it seems to.
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Readers (Score:1)
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." That got me into press conferences and got people to spend time with me for interviews.
It's a lot more impressive to have a million readers or listeners, but at the time of the American revolution, there were a lot of newspapers with 600 readers. I used to
Dont think it matters.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Our media are SO much better (Score:3, Interesting)
See :
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/11/ap-is-b
Do you think something like this stops them from falsifying news ?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061129/ap_on_re_mi_e
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
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/bagCam.html [foxnews.com]
hmmmmm
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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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You'd say it's a full-scale battlefield (especially "sadr city") with corpses everywhere, no functioning city etc.
In reality
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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 was 2004, you might argue, and doesn't take into account progress since then.
Savor, then, the implications of the fact that the head of government there met President Bush in *Jordan*. Needing to move to a foreign country to host a visiting dignitary is not
Co-operation will be beat censorship. (Score:1, Interesting)
It would be unstoppable if a suffient number of sites provided links.
A 'non-icon' possibly a greyed out 'f' which otherwise was just a normal part of the text could open a list
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"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". In this usage, "the question" is stated in the next phrase." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_questio n #Modern_usage [wikipedia.org])
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Taken far enough, you end up with Newspeak [wikipedia.org]
In all honesty, you don't want your language to descend to the level of the lowest common denominators.
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Not true. Languages do lose distinctions over time, some *much* more significant than this one. However, we invent new ones at about the same rate. There is *always* a way to say what you want to say unambiguously. Worst case, you invent a phrase yourself, and if the language needs it, it will catch on
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Blocking slashdot? (Score:3, Informative)
Learning curve (Score:4, Interesting)
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 (Score:1)
[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. (Score:2, Informative)
'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 and now held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Joshua Wolf, a freelance blogger who refused to turn over video of a 2005 protest to a U.S. federal grand jury, was also in jail.'