February 21, 2006

Ok so I do not get censored because I do not have anything to really complain about, but this guy is hanging it out there...

Zhao Jing - better known by the pen name Anti

I cut this next bit out of the Washington Post (not that I particularly like that paper but...)

Bloggers Who Pursue Change Confront Fear And Mistrust

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/20/AR2006022001304.html

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 21, 2006; Page A01

BEIJING -- When Zhao Jing moved his blog to Microsoft's popular MSN Spaces site last summer, some users worried the Chinese government would block the entire service. The censors had blacklisted the last site where the young journalist had posted his spirited political essays, and he seemed unwilling to tone down his writing at the new address.

But Zhao, better known by the pen name Anti, told fellow bloggers not to worry. If the government objected to his blog, he predicted, Microsoft would "sell me out" and delete it rather than risk being blocked from computer screens across China.

He was right. Four and a half months after he began posting essays challenging the Communist Party's taboo against discussing politics, Zhao published an item protesting the purge of a popular newspaper's top editors. Officials called Microsoft to complain, and Microsoft quickly erased his blog.

Ok so I understand that people are not actually free to say what they want in China, but in Redmond, WA? What was MSN thinking? Damn they caved into the Man... Wait a minute, they ARE the Man! Damn Microsoft is scared of something, go figure.