09/12/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10124

CHINA BLOCKS GOOGLE INTERNET SITE

The Chinese government has long tried to block the free flow of information to the Chinese people over the Internet. Among other things, Chinese authorities block access to web sites of human rights groups and Western news organizations -- including the Voice of America. And in recent days, the Internet search engine Google has been blocked in China.

Google is used daily by millions of Americans and others around the world to gather information on people, places, groups, events, ideas -- virtually anything imaginable. After logging on to the Google web site, Internet users simply type in names or phrases to gain access to other web sites with articles that have the kind of information they’re looking for. As the Associated Press points out, typing in the name of Chinese President Jiang Zemin on Google will turn up links to more than one-hundred fifty thousand web sites mentioning him.

Google was especially popular in China because it provided a way to get to many of the thousands of web sites blocked by the Chinese government. And that is presumably why Chinese authorities are trying to keep people from using it.

The Chinese government is also pursuing policies designed to foster "self-censorship" among Internet providers operating in China. More than one-hundred companies and organizations recently signed a pledge promising that information that the Chinese government deems "harmful" to "state security" or "social stability" would not be posted on their sites.

Interfering with the Internet is only the latest of the many efforts by Chinese authorities to block the free flow of ideas and information to the Chinese people. For years, there have been instances when the government has jammed radio broadcasts of the Voice of America, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and Radio Free Asia. And within China itself, the government maintains tight controls over radio and television broadcasts, newspapers, and magazines.

Such controls are contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says that, "Everyone has the right. . .to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." In today’s information age, China should remove obstacles preventing the Chinese people from making full and free use of the Internet.