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Paris (pte020/01.12.2004/10:55) - The media watchdog Reporters without Borders http://www.rsf.org has accused China of blocking access to Google News. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, the Paris-based pressure group has confirmed that the English-language news site has been inaccessible for the last 10 days. According to the watchdog, the reason for this was to try and force people to use a Chinese edition of the site. However, this does not include critical reports, the pressure group says.
China allegedly extends greater censorship over the Internet than any other country in the world. Internet "police" monitor websites and e-mails, and controls on gateways that connect the country to the global Internet are designed to prevent access to critical information. Many Chinese portals, such as Sina.com and Sohu.com monitor content and delete politically insensitive comments. Furthermore, all 110,000 of the Internet cafes in the country have to use software to control access to websites considered harmful or subversive.
"China is censuring Google News to force Internet users to use the Chinese version of the site, which has been purged of the most critical news reports," a statement by the group said. "By agreeing to launch a news service that excludes publications disliked by the government, Google has let itself be used by Beijing," it said. Google has said it is looking into the issue. "It appears that many users in China are having difficulty accessing Google News sites in China and we are working to understand and resolve the issue," a Google spokesperson said.
Google offers 15 editions of its News service, including one targeted at China and one for Hong Kong. In September, the company launched a version in simplified Chinese. The site does not filter news results to remove politically sensitive information.
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