(Clearwisdom.net) Google Inc has recently decided to succumb to the suppressive strategy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on freedom of speech in China. In its newly launched google.cn, if one searches "Falun Gong", one will be led to a string of websites which carry slanderous information against the practice. Google's decision to be an accomplice to the notorious human rights offender has drawn widespread condemnation from the international community.

"Black Day" of Freedom of Expression

According to a report by the BBC on January 25, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) condemned Google for the self-censorship in China. The leading international media watchdog said Google's launch of a new, self-censored search engine in China is a "black day" for freedom of expression.

According to the BBC report, in a press release on Wednesday, RWB said "Google's statements about respecting online privacy are the height of hypocrisy in view of its strategy in China."

Previous search engines launched by Google to enter the growing market in China were all blocked by the Chinese Communist regime. To satisfy the CCP' tight rein on freedom of speech and gain access to the alluring market, Google at last agreed to accept the censorship of its service in China.

The Move by Google Slammed by Human Rights Organizations

According to a report by Reuters on January 24, to compete in the Chinese market with more than 100 million users, Google reached a compromise that trades off Google's desire to provide universal access to information. To gain endorsement by the Chinese Communist regime, Google will take the regime's standard as its base of self-censorship.

Reporters Without Borders Internet Freedom desk chief Julian Pain say that Google's decision is a "black day" to people who dream of free expression in China.

Freedom of Express is an Internationally Recognized Human Rights Standard

Pain said that it would be impossible for hundreds of thousands of Chinese Internet users to obtain truth information of Tibet, human rights and democracy with uncensored Internet search engines. Pain stressed that freedom of express and free access to information is an internationally recognized human rights standard.

He added: "I believe that Google doesn't respect this principle, however, this principle is more important than any government ordinance. All private companies should stand together to safeguard this universal human rights standard."

Google's Decision Violates Related Article in the Universal Human Rights Declaration

During an interview with minghui.ca, Bill Xia, an Internet expert and the CEO of Dongtaiwang Inc, commented that the kowtowing of Google to the Chinese Communist regime's censorship violated its own motto to "do no evil."

U.S.-based attorney Ning Ye pointed out that Google's decision has also violated Article 19 of the Universal Human Rights Declaration, which stated: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

U.S. Congress Will Hold a Hearing on Unlawful Practices of U.S. Companies in China

Reportedly, at the request of the Chinese Communist regime, Microsoft's Chinese website has employed a filtering mechanism so that users cannot post sensitive phrases such as "human rights" and "democracy" online.

Last September, Yahoo provided data for the Chinese Communist regime, which used the data as evidence to sentence a Chinese democracy activist to 10 years in prison.

The Committee Chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Human Rights is organizing a hearing in February to discuss the cooperation of U.S. companies including Yahoo, Microsoft and Google with the Chinese Communist regime in its notorious Internet censorship.

Posting date: 1/28/2006
Original article date: 1/28/2006
Category: News Briefing
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/1/26/119504.html

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