Post-Quake, China Cuts Access to Entertainment Web Sites

thefickler writes "The Chinese Government has issued orders that all entertainment web sites and regular television programming be shut down completely for the next 3 days. Only web sites covering the recent tragic 7.8 magnitude earthquake and television stations broadcasting CCTV earthquake programming will be allowed to remain live." Can anyone with Web access in China confirm this report? From an AP story on the state of communications in the country right now, it appears at least that China is (despite ongoing monitoring) allowing freer than usual communications in the wake of the quake.

The real reason

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it is a three days national mourning to honour victims in the earthquake. China is not only suspending entertainment websites, but also suspending everything from public entertainment to olympic torch relay and all Chinese flags will be flown at half-mast. There will also be a 3-minute silence everywhere in China at 2:28pm China time today.

Check out:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/05/18/bc.as.gen.china.earthquake.olympic.ap/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1982617/China-earthquake-Rescue-teams-overwhelmed-by-disaster.html

Recent restrictions

[grainofsand]

I live and work in Shanghai. The leading (popular) domestic websites are all still accessible but are dominated by earthquake-related news and stories, including calls for donations.

TV stations are the same, and again, programming is dominated by earthquake news.

I noticed over the weekend that craigslist.org is no longer accessible from mainland.

Re:China can't read slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

reading slashdot here in shenzhen right now.

Filter news for young children..

[binaryspiral]

When 9/11 occured in the states, we had 24/7 coverage and news on just about every channel. Mr. Rogers came on PBS and said that these are aweful times, but please limit what small children are being exposed to - it could be very scary and detrimental.

Parents should act like a filter for the world - especially the hype and circus that is today's news reporting.

Other than that - what is the usefulness of an order like this? I would think having something for kids and adults alike to watch other than death and destruction would help.

Re:Whats the point?

[clragon]

What the hell is it supposed to do?

I would think that after a tragedy, it would better to OPEN the internet as much as possible.

I think this is part of the 3 days of mourning [google.com] going on in China right now, to raise even more awareness of the quake.

Also, sites regarding the earthquake will stay up. So the websites created by people to track missing relatives, or to gather donations, will stay online. Was this absolutely necessary? probably not. But I don't think this move will hinder the rescue effort at all, but rather raise more awareness of it since earthquake related info is all the Chinese people will get in the next 3 days.

National Days of Mourning

[Kaeso]

I hear that they're suspending the torch relay for three days too: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/05/18/olympic-torch.html [www.cbc.ca] So since there are to be three national days of mourning, maybe cutting access to entertainment sites is also a part of this...

Access in China

[Auldclootie]

There are more problems than normal accessing sites after the quake (from Beijing), but this may be infra-structure damage similar to that experienced last year after the Taiwan quake. I'm having trouble getting Youtube and Hotmail, but the vast majority of my usual feeds are up and running - speeds are a little slower than usual.

No change

[Anonymous Coward]

posting from within china now. all TV channels available and net access remains. where did this piece of news come from?

"National Mourning Days" they say

[prof.nemo]

I am in Hong Kong, all I heard from the the official news from mainland is that there will be 3 days of "mourning for the victims of earthquake". All entertainment facilities (casino, clubs etc.) in mainland are supposedly to be closed for these 3 days, and all mainland citizens are supposed to dress "less colorfully" as well. Didn't realize that includes entertainment websites though. Of course over here in Hong Kong we find it a bit strange and obviously the local government won't follow suit. Most Hong Kong locals don't understand the logic too, but maybe it's kind of cultural difference thing again.

I'm in China

[sjb2016]

I'm in China, have been for a few years. I can confirm that there doesn't seem to be much shutting down of websites. I can still go to the websites I normally go to view the latest episodes of Lost (hosted inside China, they stream rather well). As far as television, last night (Sunday night Shanghai time) I was watching the only not completely state run English station. The content was complete shit, but not earthquake related. I don't watch Chinese language stuff as it is shit propaganda or shit period soap operas or a cheap knock of "The Price is Right". Can still access all the websites I normally do, except for wikipedia, which is always hit or miss. Will keep things updated as I can.

Re:Over the top

[Beijing Monster]

I think this is a bit over the top. Many people lost relatives or friends in the quake. Some entertainment can help them get over the grief. Now they're constanty reminded of the quake by the media. That can't be good for them.

I live in Beijing. Such sentiments as above sound so selfish and self-indulgent. Great shows of national mourning are not unusual, even in our own western countries (or at least they used to be). I am no apologist for China but, on this, please cut the Chinese a bit of slack. You have no idea how this tragedy has affected people in China and while three days of mourning might seem excessive it is not necessarily so here. Moreover, it helps focus the national mind on what has to be done next: no more hope for rescue, the need for rebuilding, fund raising, etc. BTW, I have so far not been affected in my access to the internet or TV, etc.

Live From Beijing: Its Monday Morning.

[fotoflo]

and everything seems normal. A search for ææ or gaming on baidu returns a thousand similar sites: http://www.baidu.com/s?wd=%D3%CE%CF%B7 [baidu.com] , all of them working. Lesson to be learned: twitter isnt a great news source, and neither are twitter-derived news sites.

Most Chinese TV down in Shanghai

[Mr Europe]

This morgning here in Shanghai I noticed that the hotel TV did send western channels such as CNN but almost all Chinese channels were down. Abt three channels showed quake clearings. Somewhat leaned towards showing heroic soldiers in clean suit saving people. And the president himself directing the work. But at least this time the TV has shown a lot of quake damages.
Death toll now 33000 verified. Will rise above 40000 since now 9500 verified to be beried under rubble. 220000 injured.

Re:Closure of Channel BT.

[TubeSteak]

Some did, some didn't. Why is it alright for the government to force everyone to know about it?

Because the Chinese Government can

Because it's a national disaster and the Chinese Government will eventually use it for propaganda purposes. Something along the lines of 'there was a tragedy, we rebuilt, see how awesome the Communist Government & Chinese people are'.

I expect some people will take exception to this, but you hear the exact same type of language surrounding the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The Chinese are already flying banners saying "fight the earthquake" [google.com].

Re:Think it's a showcase?

[justicezyx]

I'm in Qingdao, Shandong Province now. I'm also watch Jackie Chan's Drunken Master clip on *youtube.com*. Actually, Chinese government issue a "3-day" mourning, like a public momorial activity that memorate the people die in this tragedy. It's vollentary, and all media is on their own way. Of course, there is mostly quake-related news, and this must be the mainstream now. As for web sites, I can access all sites that I accessed a few days ago, and everything is find. FYI, China's out-country net-access is limited by the service provides, i.e. China telecom, netcom, etc. Occasionally, you are unable to access some sites, it's because of the congestion in the bottleneck. Chinese government filter/block websits, and this is a open-secret. But, they do not act like a "censor-maina" or "fasicism"...

Re:monitored is not free

[Christopher Neufeld]

I'm in China right now. I was here (Beijing) the day the earthquake hit. At 6:00, I was having dinner in a restaurant, and the television was tuned to the national news service. I speak Chinese, and I understand it well. It was all-earthquake, all the time. Reporters were everywhere in Sichuan (they hadn't arrived in the worst-hit areas yet, it having been less than four hours). The premier was on TV talking about sending help. There were pictures of people carrying bodies and bandaged victims on their backs, footage of destroyed buildings, everything you would expect to see in a major disaster, with no conspicuous absences. It was the exact antithesis of news suppression.

In the days following the quake, I've turned on the television a couple of times. There is a lot of earthquake coverage, but I've also seen costume dramas, soap operas, musical variety shows, fund raisers, home-shopping-network style shows, and billiards tournaments.

I proxy my internet through an SSH tunnel, so I haven't noticed any changes to website availability, but I just fired up an unproxied konqueror, and I can get to the BBC, CBC, arstechnica, and slashdot through the national firewall. If somebody wants to post URLs they think are unreachable, I can give quickly determine whether they are reachable.

Re:monitored is not free

[Christopher Neufeld]

Please try finding the article "Media edicts recall China's Maoist past" from the Financial Times' website (14 May 2008, ft.com)

Yes, I can read that article using my unproxied konqueror. I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Beijing, sending all packets through the national firewall. It's not being blocked at this time (00h36 EDT).

Re:monitored is not free

[Anonymous Coward]

I speak Chinese, and I understand it well.

Unfortunately, the language Chinese speak is Mandarin.

Re:monitored is not free

[schwieter]

I live in Chengdu (about 100 km from the epicenter of the initial quake), the nearest big city to the affected area, and have noticed no change in what's accessible, be they Chinese or foreign hosted sites. Information was slow to spread after the earthquake, with, according to a friend, CCTV first reporting the earthquake about 4 hours afterwards. Here, the internet (but not intranet) was down until at least 2 hours afterwards, and the radio stations were almost exclusively running one track on repeat since everyone had fled from the studios. The cell network went down too, of course, though oddly enough international calls seemed to be able to make their way in.