censorship

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China Orders PC Makers to Bundle Web Filters

Newly required software strengthens Beijing's controls on Internet

(Newser) - Starting next month all computers in China must ship with software to block certain websites, the Wall Street Journal reports. The government says the move is to block "harmful" content such as pornography from young web surfers, but it could also be used to filter politically sensitive material. The...

HuffPo Scrubs Vid of Drunk Israelis' Obama Rants

(Newser) - The Huffington Post censored a video of young people in Israel using using racial slurs to attack President Obama, and Gawker wants to know why. Max Blumenthal, who shot the film, says a HuffPost administrator told him the clip lacked “any real news value.” Notes Blumenthal: “For...

20 Years On, Chinese Youth Forget Tiananmen

Democracy recedes for today's student generation

(Newser) - It's now been 20 years since the Chinese army rolled into Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds of students in the final push to put down a growing democracy movement. Beijing is anxious as the June 4 anniversary of the massacre approaches; Google "Tiananmen" in Beijing and you'll likely find pages...

Green Day Won't 'Censor' Album; Wal-Mart Won't Sell It

(Newser) - Wal-Mart isn’t selling Green Day’s new album because of explicit lyrics, and the band isn’t happy about it. “They won’t carry our record because they wanted us to censor it,” frontman Billie Joe Armstrong tells the AP. 21st Century Breakdown merits a parental-advisory label,...

Controversial Muhammad Cartoon Goes on Sale

Some copies are signed by artists in hiding

(Newser) - Three years after political cartoons of the prophet Muhammad sparked violent riots in Muslim countries, the Denmark Free Press Society is selling prints of the controversial art. Some of the 1,000 copies, priced at $250 each, are signed by the artist, who remains in hiding due to death threats,...

ILVTOFU Plate Too Spicy for Colo. DMV

(Newser) - A Colorado woman who wanted to advertise her vegan diet with an ILVTOFU vanity license plate is out of luck, the Denver Post reports. The state’s DMV maintains a list of banned letter combinations, of which FU is one. “We don’t allow ‘FU’ because some people...

UK Bans Ad With Lusty 'Pope'
 UK Bans Ad With Lusty 'Pope' 

UK Bans Ad With Lusty 'Pope'

It caused 'serious offense,' ad council rules

(Newser) - A British advertising commission has blocked the use of a dancing, beer-guzzling photo-manipulated "Pope John Paul II" in an advertisement promoting a nightclub, reports the Telegraph. "It was hugely offensive," said a spokeswoman for a Polish organization, one of several Catholics who complained about the brochure. "...

China Reportedly Blocks YouTube
China Reportedly Blocks YouTube

China Reportedly Blocks YouTube

Tibet-related videos bring Great Firewall down on video site

(Newser) - YouTube is suddenly inaccessible for most of China, the BBC reports. Chinese censors have reportedly blocked the site after finding videos of soldiers beating Tibetans, including monks. China wouldn’t confirm whether or not the site was blocked, saying only that it “is not afraid of the internet.”...

UK Bans Jolie Movie Ad
 UK Bans Jolie Movie Ad 

UK Bans Jolie Movie Ad

Sexy scene with guns glamorizes violence: ad authority

(Newser) - The UK has banned a TV ad for a new Angeline Jolie flick, saying it glorifies violence. In a trailer for Wanted, Jolie kisses co-star James McAvoy as they fire guns in a car chase. It implies "that using guns is sexy and glamorous," complains the nation's ad...

Pakistan Blacks Out TV Station Amid Protests

Info minister resigns as gov't bars 'anti-establishment' channel

(Newser) - A Pakistani TV station that criticized the government in recent weeks has had its signal blocked in some areas of the country on government orders, a station official said. The country’s media clampdown has driven its information minister to resign in protest, another official noted. The station shutdown occurs...

Cute Animal Video Needles China's Censors

'Grass-mud horse' sounds like something a whole lot dirtier

(Newser) - Two months after it first appeared as a cartoon on a Chinese website, the grass-mud horse is everywhere; videos of the adorable alpaca-like creature have drawn millions of hits, and stuffed animals are for sale. But the grass-mud horse is not a children's cartoon; it's a filthy pun that slipped...

China Cans Oasis Gigs Over Tibet Sympathies

(Newser) - China has canceled two Oasis concerts in April because band member Noel Gallagher appeared at a Free Tibet concert more than 10 years ago, NME reports. The decision “has left both Oasis and the promoters bewildered,” a statement from the band read. Calling the band "unsuitable,"...

New Times Investor Silences Bad Press, Times Says

(Newser) - Carlos Slim has a history of intimidating the press, but not the New York Times, which strives manfully to dish the dirt on Mexico’s richest man today, even though he just lent the paper $250 million. Slim loves making such big investments in media companies, but he hates the...

Democratic Petition Gains Support in China

Charter 08 first sustained human-rights campaign since '89 Tiananmen protests

(Newser) - An online human-rights manifesto has been gaining support in China, the Washington Post reports. Charter 08 has gathered 8,100 signatures, from ordinary citizens as well as known advocates for democracy. The document, modeled after a document put together by intellectuals in the former Czechoslovakia, demands China’s constitution be...

China Censors Obama Speech
 China Censors 
 Obama Speech 

China Censors Obama Speech

President's inclusion of communism as defeated ideology irks government

(Newser) - Chinese censors clipped parts of Barack Obama’s inaugural address from yesterday’s live telecast, including his message for the world’s despots, the New York Times reports. The streaming audio translation was muted after Obama said “communism” in a sentence about using alliances and enduring conviction to defeat...

Chinese Web Surfers Embrace Facebook Clone

'You have to respect the local user' says Berkeley-educated Facekoo founder

(Newser) - Since its March introduction, Facekoo has drawn 350,000 users and is one of the fastest-expanding social-networking sites in China, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. And, says its Hong Kong-born, Berkeley-educated founder, that’s because it fills a void left by Western sites whose mere translations to Chinese miss all...

Fatwa Against Rushdie Set Off Self-Censorship
Fatwa Against Rushdie Set Off Self-Censorship
OPINION

Fatwa Against Rushdie Set Off Self-Censorship

Edict brought Muslim culture war to the West: Hitchens

(Newser) - When Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie, Christopher Hitchens knew what it meant: "This was not just a warning of what was to come,” he writes in Vanity Fair, “it was the warning.” A global culture war, between Muslim fundamentalists and everyone else, had...

China Detains 59 in Tibet for 'Spreading Hate'

Activists accused of targeting ethnic Han migrants via music

(Newser) - Chinese police have arrested 59 people in Tibet for downloading and selling banned “reactionary songs” they say fuel ethnic hatred against migrant Han Chinese, the New York Times reports. The detainees are accused of collaborating with the exiled Dalai Lama to fuel unrest in the troubled region. State media...

China's Great Firewall Back Up
 China's Great Firewall Back Up 

China's Great Firewall Back Up

Censorship, relaxed during Olympics, on rise again as economy slows

(Newser) - China has quietly reinstated the web censorship lifted during its Olympics image cleanup, the New York Times reports today. As in the past, the tightening comes as growing unemployment raises the government’s fears of social unrest. The government defended its right to censor sites that violate Chinese secession laws,...

Website Seethes Over Newly PC Christmas Carols

(Newser) - A British website is accusing churches of political correctness after they made changes to age-old Christmas carol lyrics, the Telegraph reports. Vicars say the edits aim to remove gender-specific or racially charged words, but the editor of a Christian site calls it "a festive car crash. Half the congregation...

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