Blogs of Banned Tibetan Writer Shut Down

[Guest guest]

" Daphne Bradshaw " <laurelnymph

Wed, 2 Aug 2006 12:11:37 -0700 (PDT)

Blogs of Banned Tibetan Writer Shut Down

 

 

 

 

Blogs of Banned Tibetan Writer Shut Down

The Associated Press

Tuesday, August 1, 2006; 7:59 PM

 

SHANGHAI, China -- A pair of Chinese blogs maintained by a banned

Tibetan poet have been shut down in an apparent attempt to block her

from distributing her work online, French monitoring group Reporters

Without Borders said Tuesday.

 

The blogs displayed poetry and essays by the writer Woeser, along with

work by her husband, writer Wang Lixiong.

 

The closure of the blogs appeared to be a further attempt to silence

Woeser, who goes by one name.

 

Her collection of travel stories, " Notes on Tibet, " was banned in

2003, reportedly because it deviated from the official government take

on Tibetan history and culture. Woeser was subsequently fired from her

editing job at a government-backed journal and forced to leave her

home in Tibet's capital, Lhasa.

 

" Notes " and two other Woeser books have since been published in Taiwan.

 

China's rule over Tibet has drawn criticism from human rights groups.

The communist government has struggled to rein in free discussion in

the blogosphere, which has undergone explosive growth as a means of

circumventing strict censorship in the entirely state-controlled press.

 

In the latest attempt at muzzling, the government last week closed

online forum " China Century " that had hosted relatively free academic

discussions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080101193_\

pf.html

 

---

Monday, July 31, 2006

China shuts blog by Tibetan author

 

BEIJING ¨C¨C China has shut down a popular blog by a Tibetan author

after she wrote birthday wishes for the Dalai Lama and touched on

other sensitive topics, the writer and a website operator told AFP Monday.

 

The blog also discussed the HIV/AIDS problem in Tibet, the impact of

the recently completed Tibet railway on Tibetan culture and the 40th

anniversary of what happened in Tibet during the tumultuous Cultural

Revolution.

 

These issues are all considered sensitive by the Chinese communist

government, which has ruled Tibet since sending troops in to

" liberate " the remote Himalayan region in 1950.

 

A manager of one of two websites that carried the blogs of Oser, who

only uses one name, told AFP they were ordered to remove the blog.

 

" On July 28, we received an order from the provincial government to

shut her the blog. I don't know the reason, " said the manager of

tibetcul.net, Wangxiu Caidan, a Tibetan who gave the Chinese

transliteration of her name.

 

" I believe the order came from the central government. "

 

Wangxiu said the blog was the most popular one on her website,

enjoying 280,000 clicks since it was linked to the site in February

last year.

 

Oser, a Tibetan formerly based in Lhasa but now in Beijing, confirmed

her blog had been shut down and criticized authorities for restricting

freedom of _expression.

 

" It's unfortunate. It's unfair. In this kind of environment in China,

it's very hard to express one's true opinions and voice, " Oser said.

 

She said her birthday wishes and poem posted on July 6, the Dalai

Lama's birthday, praised the spiritual leader who has been exiled in

India since 1959.

 

She also posted pictures of yak butter lamps on the site as a birthday

gift for him, while other writing praised the Dalai Lama. " There were

a lot of commentaries, which showed Tibetans' respect for the Dalai

Lama, " Oser said.

 

She said she had no plans to create another blog in the near future

but was working on a book about Tibet.

 

In 2003, China banned " Notes on Tibet, " a book Oser wrote which

revealed sensitive religious issues, including how the exiled Dalai

Lama was still revered by Tibetans inside Tibet. China regards the

Dalai Lama as a " splittist " bent on seeking independence for the

territory, although he insists he only wants limited autonomy for his

homeland. ¨C¨C AFP

http://www.timesofoman.com/newsdetails.asp?newsid=33598

 

---

China 31 July 2006

 

Tibetan poet¡¯s blogs closed down

ÖÐÎÄ°æ±¾

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the sudden disappearance on

28 July of two blogs by leading Tibetan poet Woeser (also known as

Oser and, in Chinese, Wei Se). They were shut down by the websites

that hosted them - Tibetcul.net, a Tibetan cultural portal, and

Daqi.com, a local blog platform - presumably on government orders amid

a continuing wave of online censorship in China.

 

¡°We are appalled by the closure of Woeser¡¯s blogs and we call for

them to be reopened,¡± the press freedom organisation said. ¡°As her

poetry is banned in China, these blogs were the only way she had left

to express herself. Their disappearance shows how the Chinese

authorities go out of their way to limit Tibetan culture to folklore

for tourists.¡±

 

Reporters Without Borders added: ¡°Political control of the Chinese

Internet is becoming more and more strict. The Chinese search engines

recently updated their word filters while chat forums have been closed

on government orders. We again appeal to the Chinese authorities to

respect freedom of _expression, a right guaranteed under their

constitution.¡±

 

Woeser used her two blogs - http://oser.tibetcul.net/ and

http://blog.daqi.com/weise/ - to post her poems and essays about

Tibetan culture, as well as articles written by her husband, Wang

Lixiong, an independent Chinese writer. Most of the visitors to the

blogs were Tibetan students who, like Woeser, had received their

education in Chinese and who wanted to renew contact with their

original Tibetan culture.

 

Woeser is one of the few Tibetan authors and poets to write in

Chinese. She is committed to the defence of Tibetan culture and her

book ¡°Notes on Tibet¡± was banned in 2004 because of its favourable

references to the Dalai Lama. She was fired from her job, evicted from

her home and lost her social welfare entitlement. She was also forced

to write articles recognising her ¡°political errors.¡± But she has

continued to work and several of her books have been published in

Taiwan in recent years.

 

The disappearance of her two blogs comes a few days after the closure

of the forum of her husband¡¯s website Dijin-democracy.net, and that

of a site that was very influential among Chinese intellectuals,

Century China.

 

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18427

 

 

" The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after

all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it

and to foster its renewal is our only hope. " Wendell Berry