Blackout greets Tiananmen anniversary

4 Jun 2009, 7:10 am   -   Source: AFP
0 Comments
Share This
+ Comment
0

China has kept a tight lid on content related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, blacking out foreign TV reports about the 20th anniversary of the incident and expanding curbs on websites.

RELATED

China has kept a tight lid on content related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, blacking out foreign TV reports about the 20th anniversary of the incident and expanding curbs on websites.


News reports about the bloody June 3-4 crackdown that ended seven weeks of pro-democracy protests at the square were abruptly cut off on Wednesday with screens periodically going black on the BBC and CNN in China, as they have all week.

China's censors also appeared to be blocking sites such as Microsoft's new search engine Bing, social networking service Twitter, photo-hosting website Flickr and others.

Attempts by AFP to access those sites resulted in an error page saying the site could not be displayed.

 

YouTube, BBC blocked

The sites join those regularly blocked by China at sensitive times, including YouTube, the BBC's Chinese-language service and press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

The blockages prompted a flurry of speculation on Chinese chat sites by users careful to avoid mentioning the Tiananmen events, which are still taboo here.

"It is not because of a software glitch. It is because of ... tomorrow," one user wrote on the donews.com website about the Bing.com blockage.

RSF issued a statement condemning the moves.

"Twenty years later, it is still impossible for the Chinese media to refer freely to the ruthless suppression of China's pro-democracy movement in June 1989," the Paris-based media watchdog said.

Youngsters 'unaware of significance'

"The information blackout has been enforced so effectively for 20 years that most young Chinese are completely unaware of this major event."

The Chinese army forcibly cleared the square and surrounding areas on the night of June 3-4, 1989. Hundreds, and possibly thousands, were killed in the crackdown.

China has visibly beefed up security at the square, the political heart of the nation, in a bid to prevent protests or other attempts to mark the anniversary, and tightened restrictions on dissidents.

The square was closed down at 4pm local time for the visit of the Malaysian prime minister, but has since failed to re-open despite police assurances it would, an AFP reporter on the scene said.

Police presence strong

A policeman said the square, which normally closes at 10pm, would only re-open on June 4.

And there was a strong police presence on Wednesday night in Muxidi west of Tiananmen Square, where many people were killed 20 years ago.

China also has recently blocked a number of Chinese blogs, such as that of prominent artist and gadfly Ai Weiwei, who is frequently critical of the government.

But some Chinese netizens found ways around the blocks, referring for instance to June 4 as "May 35th," a non-existent date that is doing the rounds online.

"When I heard the news (blocking of Twitter), it shocked me. As May 35th approaches, it's time for drastic measures," said a blogger called Xiaoxiao Shuiyun.

CNN accessible

However, many major websites with links to Tiananmen-related information were freely available, including some featuring the famous photo of a lone man standing in front of a column of tanks -- an image banned in China.

Sites such as CNN.com, which has been blocked in the past during politically sensitive periods, also were accessible.

A Microsoft official said Tuesday its Bing.com, Live.com and Hotmail.com sites were among several to have been blocked for customers in China.

Hotmail.com accounts were intermittently accessible by AFP on Wednesday.

'Pages missing' in newspapers

Some newspaper readers also have reported pages missing in international newspapers distributed in China.

China's foreign correspondents' association issued a statement on Tuesday saying it had received reports of authorities blocking reporting at Tiananmen Square and intimidating journalists or their sources.

"The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China deplores the restrictions on journalists attempting to cover the 20th
anniversary of the military crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989," the statement said.

 

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.