By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, October 23: China has stepped up curbs in Tibet, closing down websites and blogs after it failed to stop US President George W. Bush from meeting Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama and awarding of the US Congressional Gold Medal to him according to a media report.
The report stated that at least five Tibetans were arrested in Tibet’s Amdo province for celebrating after the Dalai Lama received the US Congress’ highest civilian honour while a website and two bogs were closed down.
The report, however, did not cite on what specific grounds the site and the blogs were closed down.
On October 16, a day before the Dalai Lama was due to be honoured with the Congressional Gold Medal, www.tibettl.com/blog was closed down and soon after www.tibetcm.com and blogwww.tibetcm.com/blog were also reportedly closed.
The closure of the websites comes in the wake of international media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders issuing a report, saying how repressive governments were turning their sights on websites and blogs in a bid to undermine media freedom the IANS report stated.
The website www.tibetcm.com was also forced to shut down by the Chinese authorities on July 4 this year, apparently for posting “political” content according to the site’s editor. The site, known as “The Lamp,” in Tibetan claimed some 800 registered forum users by then.
On July 1, the Chinese government is said to have issued rules requiring the name of an author to appear at the end of each article posted on a Web site. If the Web site contains articles on sensitive topics, the Web site or the author could be fined 4,000-60,000 Yuan (U.S. $526-U.S. $7,893).
Last Week, analysts said US Internet search engines in China were being hijacked and directed to Chinese-owned Baidu, speculating that the move was in retaliation for Washington’s award to Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama.
Analysts at Search Engine Roundtable, a website focusing on Internet search, said Chinese users trying to search on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft websites were being directed to the Chinese search engine.
The Chinese government blocks access to thousands of news Web sites and chat forums. It regularly jams Chinese-, Tibetan- and Uyghur-language programs of international radio stations. The authorities are also now said to be concentrating on blogs and video-sharing sites to control flow of information.
China has begun a massive public relations exercise in its southern neighbour Nepal, inviting groups of Nepali journalists to Tibet so that they can write about the region’s development and prosperity under Beijing’s control, IANS report stated.
