The Globalization makes the world down scaling into your hand that everybody can access to all the information around the world by using internet. However, there is a barrier in one area that people cannot approach to the valuable resources as we see in the article “China tightens internet censorship controls” on BBC News (Chen, 2011).
Chen reports that the Chinese government has established the State Internet Information Office which is a new organization to verify the sensitive information from the internet within China. Chen informs that it is called “great firewall of China”. Wang Chen, who is in charge the information minister, used technical and political control for the internet network that make the new body to be ascendant organization which is predominant the other ministry. All the information such online news and information, new media business and internet access will have to pass stringent monitoring. In addition, the Chinese would like to access that information, unless, the government will face the problem seem as Jasmine Revolution in the Middle East and North Africa. On the other hand, the government makes use the internet to encourage them to the international level.
I think that the new organization is very important and essential for national security. However, it seems to be lack of freedom for people in China to access the information from the internet because the new organization has the strong checking process and system. Especially, the news is the main information that the Chinese have to know the movement and feedback from the global level. Therefore, the Chinese will miss some information that may useful for their life. Moreover, the new body has more and more power over the other ministries. Thus, the government should set up the mechanism for keeping balance that power. Finally, the government uses the internet as a channel to promote them to the world. Accordingly, their people should also have a chance to completely connect to the largest network in the world.
Chen, S. (2011, May 4). China tightens internet censorship controls. BBC News. Retrieved May 5, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13281200
Politics of the domination! Internet gives us information for our intellectual and for the community growth. Is very important for us to follow what happen in whole of the world. However, if all the Chinese people have this kind of information maybe, the government can come to lose is domain power on is people because, ignorant people are more easy to dominate and well educated people the government can lose the control and maybe, need give some explanations about their actions and it can come to lose is domain power.
ReplyDeleteReading Nui's post, I was impressed by how effectively he points out the certain results of censorship, and how he then follows up with a clear explanation of why that is most often a very bad thing.
ReplyDeleteAs Nui tells us in his introduction, ready access to information is one of the great boons of the Internet, but that "there is a barrier in one area that people cannot approach to the valuable resources" (¶ 1). And as Nui rightly goes on to explain this barrier to information is censorship, in this case by the Chinese government.
As we saw on the first day of class, in the OED definition for academic, in after definition 2.a., which is the one for AEP, there is also 2.b., and that one emphasizes the importance of free speech in the pursuit of knowledge, and rightly so: knowledge is impossible where censorship means there is no free speech on a topic. I don't mean that it knowledge is more difficult under censorship, I mean that to the extent that it succeeds, censorship on any and every topic, without exception, guarantees ignorance on that topic and makes knowledge impossible in principle. The only reason in common for every case of censorship and the denial of free speech is ignorance on the topic being censored, and ignorance is generally not a good thing. There are of course some situations where ignorance really is much better than knowledge, but they are specific and few. For example, it is right to ban the publication of information on the location and production of nuclear weapons because it is very good for terrorists to be ignorant on that topic. It is less obvious that the Chinese people should be ignorant of Mao and his crimes, natural disasters, official corruption, their leaders, and the numerous other topics that are officially censored to guarantee ignorance.
Sadly, the Chinese government, and many others, use the law to enforce ignorance on their citizens on many topics where the citizens really need to be informed and knowledgeable - and that is bad for everyone: bad for the people, bad for the nation, bad for everyone except the oppressive government using censorship to deny the right to free speech becasue they want their people to be ignorant for some entirely selfish reason.
I think Neiva is right: the Chinese government selfishly fears losing power if the Chinese people are well informed about them and no longer ignorant.