Jail House Blog
Oct 18th, 2007 by Peter
Fell over this article (in Danish).
It describes how a recent survey by Reporters Without Borders (RWB) shows that 64 bloggers round the world are imprisoned for blogging unwanted stuff about their country/government.
According to RWB, 50 of these are (surprisingly?) located Chinese prisons.
China is a huge population which may explain why China achieves a massive number one this easy.
Again you can always put a question mark to how representative the survey really is. My bet is that the number is lower than the real deal. Not all governments in the line of fire would willingly give up this stuff to journalists, so I guess this is the best shot we got.
No matter how valid the numbers really are, the figures have to rain a bit on China’s parade. Especially now less than one year before the Olympics in Beijing.
Quote:
Reporters Without Borders compiled this index by sending a questionnaire to the 15 freedom of expression organisations throughout the world that are its partners, to its network of 130 correspondents, and to journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists. It contained 50 questions about press freedom in their countries. The index covers 169 nations. Other countries were not included because of lack of data.
Maybe this is a dumb question but do inmates ever have access to the internet? I have seen a few bloggers “blogging,” but I assume they are just sending letters home and having them publish their words. I was just curious if anybody allows inmates internet access.
I wondered the same, but haven’t got the answer.
I think they have here in Denmark, but then again, we’re known to be a bit more liberal when it comes to jailtime. My best guess is that the same doesn’t apply for China.
A unique and different topic on jails. I hope every one should enjoy this. Am i right?