(Kyodo) _ Chinese Internet authorities have blocked access to the public online encyclopedia Wikipedia within the past week, Internet commentators say.
As of Wednesday, Chinese Internet users could not get onto Wikipedia, a four-year-old free-content encyclopedia compiled largely by contributions from users. Attempts to load Wikipedia generate page-cannot-be-displayed messages.
Hundreds of thousands of people around the world visit Wikipedia every day, according to statistics posted on the site.
The China media and advertising web log Danwei.org said last Friday that Wikipedia had been blocked.
China’s Public Security Ministry routinely blocks sites with anti-China content or promotions for causes such as Taiwan independence or the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement.
Among Wikipedia’s 1.8 million articles in 100 languages is a multi-part China section that covers nationalism, propaganda and Falun Gong, with references to China’s “oppression” of Tibetans and other ethnic minorities.
News of the Wikipedia blockade has made rounds online.
“As an expat living in a foreign country, I am already deprived of many simple pleasures like reading the Sunday papers, spending hours in the bookstore or just watching English TV,” said China-based blogger Peter Lee.
“So when even more is taken away from me for no apparent logical reason, it makes me mad as hell.”
Posting date: 26/Oct/2005
Original article date: 26/Oct/2005
Category: Media Report
