links for 2007-06-17

• New Statesman - Those dangerous bloggers
  "Hu and Zeng's first child is due in November. With Hu back under house arrest, she wonders how they will cope. She worries that she is put ting too much pressure on her family, and that she is now so notorious, she will never get a job."
  (tags: china internet censorship humanrights freespeech bloggers blogging)
• Openness & Accountability: A Study of Transparency in Global Media Outlets
  "most news outlets are unwilling to let the public see how their editorial process works. Fewer than half of the websites publicly corrected mistakes in their stories and only a handful shared with readers the journalistic and ethical standards that theor
  (tags: media journalism accountability transparency trust news)
• EastSouthWestNorth: Wanted To Hire: Internet Commentators for the Taizhou Government
  "The Taizhou city publicity department and Internet administration came up with a proposal to set up city- and county-level teams of Internet commentators. ..."
  (tags: propaganda information internet china chineseinternetresearch)

Comments

[mahathir_fan]

Hu and Zeng's struggles are completely LOST in the New Statesman article. The article by New Statesman is truly another example of journalism failure.

We read about Hu and Zeng yet, their original Cause have been totally omitted from the article. We only get a glimpse - that they are Aids activists nothing much else.

Yet, the true cause of their "house arrest" is not answered. If they are truly simple Aids activists, then it does not make any sense that they would be under house arrest. Even Wen Jia Bao, the Premier himself have visited hospitals and shoke hands with Aids patient.

We read the article coming out with an impression that "this is another example of how the Communist government oppresses its people". Hu and Zeng appears as just another 2 statistics. What are they so concern about, what is it that the government fear is never answered. What we learn instead is that the Communist goverment still does not respect human rights and Hu and Zeng are squeezed in as the latest examples.

Journalist covering this story ought to put more effort into uncovering and explaining to readers how the information known only by Hu and Zeng could cause harm to the Beijing government which would then explain the rationale for their house arrest.

At this point, these reporters are not telling me everything about Hu and Zeng; or they are just writing another article to bash the democratically elected Communist government - and Hu and Zeng are just disillusioned about being followed. (I once had a professor who went crazy thinking that the CIA is following him everywhere.)

We still need journalists but we need journalists who would write and explain things in the most detail and assume that their readers would read their articles in the most critical mindset.