China Pinpoints YouTube, CNN, Google News for Tibetan Riot Censorship

March 17 2008 / by Marisa Vitols / In association with Future Blogger.net
Category: Government   Year: General   Rating: 12

It surfaced yesterday that the Chinese government is selectively denying its citizens access to YouTube. Google News has also been blocked and media coverage has been denied to CNN. According to the AP, the censorship is in response to the dozens of videos posted of Friday’s violent Tibetan protests.

Although Chinese web/news restrictions are nothing new, it’s nevertheless a bit unsettling to see how quickly such a big country can so selectively shut down such potent communication channels. It makes one wonder how fast that could occur in “more advanced” nations given the “right” situation. Surely the contingency plans have been laid even here in the United States and elsewhere.

At the same time, how could such control possibly be sustainable? The advent of cheap videophones and pervasive connectivity are making it very difficult to restrict information. The next generations of both will further add to the censors’ headaches. For better or worse, we’re heading toward an increasingly transparent world in which the cost of suppressing information may soon be too high for nations (and companies) to stomach.

(cont.)

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How Non-Lethal Weapons Will Kill Public Protest

September 24 2008 / by John Heylin / In association with Future Blogger.net
Category: Culture   Year: General   Rating: 5 Hot

Authority figures sure have gotten a lot smarter in dealing with public protests. In the 60’s and 70’s, public protests were greeted with iconic backlash from police and national guard alike. With the television and camera able to record these protests, they became icons for whatever movement they were fighting for.

There was the Kent State shootings immortalized by the picture of Mary Ann Vecchio screaming over the body of slain protester Jeffrey Miller. Or the famous video of police blasting protesters with fire hoses as well as sicking their dogs on high school students in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963.

It was due to these images that the traditional way of dealing with protesters had to change radically. In his paper titled “From Escalated Force to Disruption Control: The Evolution of Protest Policing,” Alex Vitale, a former consultant to the ACLU and Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College, states the following:

“Prior to the 1970’s police relied on a doctrine of “Escalated Force” in responding to demonstrations. Following numerous reports, civil law suits, and media coverage criticizing the violence that often resulted form this approach, many departments developed a doctrine of “Negotiated Management,” which attempted to minimize violence through improved communication with demonstrators and greater tolerance of disruptive activity.” -Alex Vitale.

Tactics had to change — police could no longer use any force necessary in order to quell a public protest. It’s especially true in this day and age when even videos of earthquakes are posted on the internet within minutes of their occurrence.

A great report by the ACLU (co-authored by Alex Vitale) on the protests during the 2004 Republican National Convention detail how police used mass arrests, detentions, cheap zip-ties, horse charges, intense surveillance and limited access to combat the possible threat from protesters (no one wanted a repeat of the infamous Battle of Seattle of 1999). Tactics have changed, and as a result the voice of the protester is getting fainter and fainter.

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