Friday, May 25, 2007

China & Chinese Bloggers


It is going to be a real tough job registering millions of bloggers. What with unremitting protests from the mammoth community of internet users, it's better to encourage your countrymen and women to register, than to force them to do so.
Here's the Bernama story (I know the news is a little stale):

BEIJING, May 23 (Bernama) -- Following opposition from the industry and netizens, China is likely to discard long-harboured plans requiring the country's 20 million bloggers to register themselves, state media said.
A draft published by the Internet Society of China (ISC) encouraged bloggers to register their names with service providers instead of making it compulsory, China Daily reported.
Government departments have been promoting a real-name system for years, arguing it will force Internet users to watch their words and actions, and refrain from slander, pornography and dissemination of other harmful information, the newspaper said.
But the proposal drew protests from Internet users and the industry, it added.
According to the ISC draft, those who voluntarily register themselves may still use pseudonyms and service providers must ensure the confidentiality of bloggers.
The draft was prepared by a group of blog providers and industry experts set up last October to discuss the development and regulations of the industry. China has 144 million Internet users as of March this year.
The China Internet Survey Report 2007 released in January showed the number of bloggers in the country had grown to 20.8 million with 3.15 million active writers.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

saya ada pengikut setia blog ini, ialah umur kat 60 ni tak de apa nak buat kat umah lebih baik ikut blog-blog yang interesting such as yours, register atau tidak itu tidak penting, pada saya yang penting ada tanggungjawab pada diri dan juga umum, saya ada jugalah berangan nak buat blog sendiri tapi mungkin belum masanya. Saya gembira melihat bloggers bersatu dalam memperjuangkan kepentingan bagi kebebasan bersuara namun saya rasa sebebas mana kehendak kita tentulah ada hadnya. Kini saya terasa kecewa melihat ada pula bloggers yang merasakan mereka harus diberi kebebasan 100% untuk bersuara, tiada partisan kononnya hingga membentuk satu lagi pakatan - bukankah itu salah satu dari partisan? Mengapa ini terjadi, apakah yang mendorong mereka. Saya harap biarlah semuanya bersatu agar suara-suara bloggers ini akan lebih dihormati oleh semua. Anyway saya sungguh mengkagumi TWB, semoga dengan paparan kehidupan ini dapat memberi inspirasi kepada anak-anak muda sekarang.

KopiSoh said...

Hi Nuraina, just dropping by to see how you are doing? Looks your blog is flourishing, good for you. Have a great weekend.

Daily Nibbler said...

I think it is imposible to force bloggers to register. What if they don't? Will their blogs be barred from viewing?

What about bloggers who live outside China, and I believe there are millions of them?

The only way is to shut down the Internet which is a major step backwards for any country.

Its not a question of whether the government of any country want to but can they.