Reporters without Borders, 12 March 2012

Reporters without Borders — As in 2011, China is again one of the worst internet enemies in the world, according to Reporters Without Borders. In regard to China, the report “Enemies of the Internet” published on 12 March 2012 explains how during the last year the country reinforced its technical capacity and stepped up pressure on privately owned Internet companies in order to secure their collaboration.

As other countries in the list, China combines often drastic content filtering with access restrictions, tracking of cyber-dissidents and online propaganda. In the wake of the Arab spring China reinforced online contents filtering in order to avoid similar events to take place inside the country. Moreover, China pays bloggers to post messages endorsed by the party. It can rely on a well-trained cyber police as well as on some 40,000 microblogs to spread propaganda messages. China, followed by Vietnam and Iran, has the largest number of netizens in prison again this year. Among the others, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo remains behind bars. Despite the growing disapproval of the international community, China continues defending the principle of a “code of good conduct for the Internet”, through which it actually legitimizes its severe censorship.

The report can be downloaded here.