Posted on 02/11/2020 3:42:17 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
BEIJING - China’s coronavirus outbreak has tested the limits of free speech on the country’s heavily censored online and social media, with a brief window of liberalization that opened during January subsequently slammed shut by authorities.
The period from Jan 19 to Feb 1, when public concern about the coronavirus exploded just as China was gearing up for the Lunar New Year holiday, saw an uncharacteristic loosening. Online buzz about the outbreak flourished, with netizens largely unfettered in criticizing local authorities - but not central government leaders - over their handling of the crisis.
That liberalisation has come to end, with censors in the past week shutting down WeChat groups and scrubbing social media posts, according to Chinese reporters. Authorities have also reprimanded tech firms that gave free rein to online speech.
“Xi Jinping has made it clear that he expects efforts to strengthen ‘the guidance of public opinion’ to be increased,” said Fergus Ryan, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) who studies Chinese social media.
“We’ve already seen around 300 more journalists dispatched to Wuhan and surrounding areas to report on the outbreak. It’s highly likely their brief is to paint a rosier picture of the government’s relief efforts rather than engage in any muckraking or critical reporting.”
A notice circulated by CAC last week that was seen by Reuters asked audio and video platforms to step up control on “harmful information and rumour” related to Wuhan virus.
It also asked them to stick to official media such as Xinhua and People’s Daily, “not to push any negative story, and not to conduct non-official livestreaming on the virus.”
Some investigative articles published by local media outlets from Wuhan have also been deleted.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
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Can't have the people get uppity, now can we?Bring Out Your Dead
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.
One of the comments was “How come you are able to get a youtube out of China!!??”
The answer was in the content of the video.
“The streets have a few people out to get groceries and medicines, but most people are following the guidelines of staying inside.
I have passed by three pharmacies that are open, and two stores - oh - here is a third one, lets go in.
The shelves aren't full, but still plenty of food. People are not panicked.
Okay - so I have a bag of vegetables, another of fruit, another of meat, and a bag of Fritos corn chips to bring back home. It was nice to see a few people on the street and to be friendly with.”
Obviously the censors haven’t gotten sick in large numbers. Dang.
youtube has even put the crunch on videos coming out
it’s been said 203 netizen reporters have been arrested. And Chen Quishi is still missing.
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