links for 2008-03-23

• Yahoo! denies posting web photos of Tibetan protesters
  "US Internet giant Yahoo! denied Saturday posting on its websites pictures of 19 people wanted by the Chinese authorities for protesting in the Tibetan capital Lhasa."
  (tags: yahoo! csr propaganda media journalism newmedia internet china chineseinternetresearch)
• YouTube unblocked in China--but could Google have cooperated? | Sinobyte: CNET Blog on technology and the impact on China's environment, politics, and international affairs. - CNET Blogs
  Sinobyte reports that YouTube is unblocked but Tibet-related pages still appear to be - thought it's unclear with or without Google's assistance. Gmail confirmed to be problematic using "http' but working fine if you use "https"
  (tags: chineseinternetresearch china internet censorship google youtube gmail)
• Alibaba seeks buyers for Yahoo-owned stake: source | Technology | Reuters
  "China's Alibaba Group is seeking investors to buy the 39 percent stake in the Internet company held by Yahoo Inc, a person with direct knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday..."
  (tags: china alibaba yahoo! internet chineseinternetresearch business)
• EastSouthWestNorth: Most Wanted in Tibet
  Roland has a roundup of info on the "most wanted in Tibet" photos making the rounds of the Chinese Internet, and points out that Yahoo! and other Western-owned/invested portals are in a tough spot.
  (tags: tibet china chineseinternetresearch internet propaganda media journalism)

Comments

[Charles Liu]

R, look at the Franc24 screenshot you posted as evidence - the photos appeared in a secition titled "focus of the day".

It's obvious yahoo is displaying aggregated news collection, and that happens to be circulated in China.

Again, the warrants were issued properly, so what's the problem?

[Charles Liu]

Here, I dug it up for you -

In Cubby v CompuServe no knowledge and control over the information was established by the court and therefore no liability attached.

If Yahoo's front page was merely aggregating prevelant content, precedent dictates it is not liable. That's even if we ignore the fact the warrants were properly issued under China's law.

[mahathir_fan]

When I saw all the violence in Lhasa, it only made me want to be there in person to protect my people against these mobs.

Just for your information, in the old days, to protect new Chinese immigrants, the Chinese in Malaysia have what we call "Black societies". They are funded by businesses in return the members of the "black societies" offer protection of businesses from vandalism.

What the Han Chinese and Hui Chinese need in Tibet are these "black societies" that will operate at the periphery of the law, to strike back and offer protection that the Chinese government is often to late to arrive at the scene especially to avenge for the brutal cutting of ears of children and death of the innocent.

I hope that my words will offer inspriration to any black society member especially those in Macao and Hong Kong to do something useful for once. Let's show that you are once again the Robin Hood of the Chinese people instead of people living off extortions and usury of the very people you claim to protect.

[Julien Pain]

The photos were published as Yahoo's main news. I doubt that Yahoo's top news is generated automatically... See the new printscreen we've published on The Observers :
http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20080321-yahoo-msn-used-root-out-tibetan-rioters-china
as for their denial. This is a common line of defence by Yahoo!, which tries to put the entire responsibility of its Chinese operations on its Chinese partner Alibaba.

[mahathir_fan]

It doesn't matter whether it was intentional or not. If it is, all the power to them. They did a great job publicizing the photos intentional or not.

One thing I'm really glad about this event in recent days is that the Chinese people by and large have woken up and seen the light. They have realized that the Western media are just as biased as their own state run media.

Its a message I have been trying to convey for years. I have always said it - the Western media is a propaganda machine and people who read them will be brainwashed- but a lot of people don't realize that. That is the danger. When I read government controlled press, I KNOW it is a propaganda machine, but when I read the Western media, I did not realize it was a propaganda machine until very late in the game. Dr. Mahathir absolutely got it right on this. I myself didn't believe him at first.

I'm proud to say that I boycotted the Western media since 1998, and have never paid a single cent to purchase Western media since 1994. In the last 4 to 5 years, I have extended my boycott to American movies. (However, my boycott of American movies was unintentional - I just stop watching them and realize that I no longer have the desire).

When I am at Asian airports, I always get a feeling of intense DISGUST when I hear CNN or BBC being blasted all over.

Unfortunately, we need to do more. than just boycott the Western media. A lot of our own local media still purchase their international stories from news agency like Reuters and AFP. So I still read bits of "Western media" despite my attempt at boycott.

Our own local news should start forming their own network to go all over the world to get those stories instead of purchasing them from Reuters or AFP. Then, it was really clean up the system.

[Charles Liu]

France24 stop lying. It's the same screen shot. The photos appeared under the tab "Focus of the Day".

It's obvious to me it's aggragated news of the day, not some special report where Yahoo went out of its way to put the wanted photo up. That's what the portals in China were running at the time.

Anyways, the warrants were properly issued, what's the problem? Wanted photos make it on news and websites all the time stateside.

[Charles Liu]

It make sense now, Julien Pain is with RSF:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Julien+Pain+RSF

Don't try to pull fast one on us, RSF. Wek know about RSF's funding from the NED and European Commission, and the fact RSF does their master's foreign policy biddings.

Read the articles on Wikipedia (CounterPunch, La Mond.)

[Charles Liu]

More honorable mention of RSF shill Julien Pain.

Pain is also on the board of GV? Part of the 'democracy' crowd linked to OSI? USAID?

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=14322

R, are you guys running some kind of "echo chamber" here? I don't want to believe it.

[Rebecca MacKinnon]

A few facts:
1. Julien Pain left RSF last year and went to work for France24.
2. Julien Pain has not contributed to Global Voices since November 2005.
3. Julien Pain is not on the Global Voices board.
4. Ethan Zuckerman, my co-founder of Global Voices, was for a long time on the Technology sub-board of OSI.
This is all public information.

[mahathir_fan]

Its so weird to see Reporters protesting. What do they teach in journalism school these days?? That you stake a stand and you use the media to manipulate your viewers so they take the same position as you???

Reporters aren't supposed to take sides! They are suppose to be as impartial as possible and tell both sides of the story.

I always have doubt about these foreign organizations like Reporters Without Borders and amnesty international. But you figure reporters would be held to a little higher standard. When he protested like that, my impression of reporters just went down the drain. Here, these are the people who supposedly write news for the world's news organizations. How do you expect these people to be IMPARTIAL now?? And why are you all still reading their articles??

FYI: There's something called the ethics of journalism - google it all aspiring journalist.

Charles - you did it again. The Zmag link was very good job.

One can of course fault, china isn't much better. But no one in China expects Xinhua to be impartial. Xinhua is a government mouthpiece. There is expectation that they will be lopsided. But private news organizations are expected by their paying readers to provide the highest standards of journalism possible - which most are in the West. This is why blogs are starting to replace news, because news were like blogs to begin with! There is no longer any professional journalist!

The best thing that has happened in the last few days is that the people in China have awoken to find that the Western media IS AGAINST them. Its what I have been championing for years. There is a jihad against China. They do not trust China and the Chinese. But the Chinese people don't realize this. They prepare the Olympics thinking that they will be the best host possible. They don't realize that the wolves are also being invited. I hope they see now.

There is no noble cause in them. The best way to obtain freedom is not through any kind of political change. It is through education. I never had a chance to go to university myself, but I believe that education is what gives someone freedom, university or not.

[Charles Liu]

Right, just like Yahoo's "is not" - Pain "was/is not" on GV board? Irony abound.

No wonder you guys weren't blogging about OSI bank rolling Burma's little uprise.

So, this is what's underneath the facade of "new media" - same old NGO/GO money and agenda?

New media, old media, does it even matter? China can't win.

[clarke]

the only "echo" around here comes from Chuck Liu spouting Chinese Communist party doublespeak and platitudes...

[Rebecca MacKinnon]

Yeah clarke you're right. He sees everything as an anti-China conspiracy and isn't interested in any other possibilities. He can't get his head around the idea that some Westerners can be critical of the Chinese government's actions (AND other governments including the U.S.) but not be racist or "anti-China": in other words, that it's possible to wish the Chinese people well and to hope they'll achieve all the success that they deserve in the global economy without having one's tongue up the Chinese government's anal orifice at all times.

[Charles Liu]

Please take a look at your Tibet coverage so far. Have you given the victims of Tibet rioters a fair shake?

Pople that were beaten/stoned to death. What about their human rights?

You had one link to Roland's blog, and one reluctant "balanced" retort to prove you "are not siding with the rioters".

The right hates China, the left hates China... the result is these false image and twist of fact only contribute toward America's anti-Chinese hysteria.

You bet I'm gonna take it personal.

It's ironic that while y'all are obviousely connected, you are accusing me of having something to do with the Chinese government. Let's see some Google result, or is that just something from your "anal orifice"?

[Rebecca MacKinnon]

Charles no doubt your anger is genuine. Why don't you start your own blog so that you can make your case more completely and to a larger audience? I'm sure it would develop quite a large following if indeed there are many others who share your feelings and views.

[barnychan]

"Charles no doubt your anger is genuine"

You really think so? My hunch is that the Charles and Mahathir Fan double act here is the start of a Borat-style spoof (no doubt funded by George Soros) intended to discredit the Chinese diaspora. I've met some strange, paranoid, self-pitying Chinese nationalists in my time, but nothing to match these two. They can't be real...

[mahathir_fan]

barny,
sorry you got it all wrong. Charles is against China-haters. I am on the same "side" of China-haters. You can think of me as a Western-hater, because I do not think China-haters are misinformed. Charles would think that with the right information there would be less China-haters. I welcome that potential reality but I will reserve judgement after the fact.

For example, Charles would probably be against an Olympic boycott. Whereas, I am all for an Olympic boycott. Charles would probably want the Western media to correct themselves and report news fairly. I on the other hand am enjoying all the Western media's mistakes and hope that they will keep making those mistakes to anger the Chinese.

Your little mind may have a hard time discerning the 2 because we bring up similar points, but our final agenda are quite completely the opposite.

[barnychan]

"Your little mind may have a hard time discerning the 2 because we bring up similar points, but our final agenda are quite completely the opposite."

Your individual intentions are irrelevant. What matters is that both of you give the impression that the Chinese diaspora is made up of hysterical paranoid inadequates seeing conspiracy in every corner. The reality is very different.