Censorship

A new EPA rule will make it more difficult for the regulators to use some scientific studies about the connection between pollution and health.

Science

Trump EPA Erects New Barriers To Crucial Science

5:21pm January 05, 2021

by Rebecca Hersher

Studies based on private health data are crucial to understanding dangers posed by pollution. A new rule makes it harder for the EPA to consider many studies when setting safeguards.

The lower chamber of Russia's parliament approved a number of bills on Wednesday that restrict online content.

Russian Lawmakers Pass Bills That Could Block Social Media Sites — And Stifle Dissent

1:32pm December 23, 2020

by Laurel Wamsley

One law would allow for the blocking of foreign websites that it says "discriminate" against Russian media, while another would allow people convicted of slander to be jailed for up to two years.

Zoom acknowledged Thursday that it had suspended three accounts belonging to activists at China's request. Two of the accounts belonged to U.S.-based activists and the third to a labor leader in Hong Kong.

World News

Zoom Acknowledges It Suspended Activists' Accounts At China's Request

9:04pm June 12, 2020

by Jason Slotkin

The video conferencing company says Beijing had asked that four meetings and associated users be terminated. Two of the users were based in the U.S. and the third in Hong Kong.

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, seen here in Ashgabat in October 2019, earlier offered remedies to combat the virus from a book on medicinal plants that he authored.

Turkmenistan Has Banned Use Of The Word 'Coronavirus'

6:39pm March 31, 2020

by Joanna Kakissis

Reporters Without Borders says the government has forbidden state-controlled media from using the word and ordered its removal from health brochures distributed at hospitals, schools and workplaces.

Pakistani author Mohammed Hanif says copies of the Urdu translation of his irreverent novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, were seized from his publisher's office this week. The book was published in English in 2008 to wide international acclaim and was tr

Pakistani Author Comes Under Fire For Satirical Novel After Urdu Edition Is Published

10:43am January 10, 2020

Copies of a new Urdu edition of Mohammed Hanif's 2008 novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, were seized Monday. Rights groups say it's another sign that freedom of expression is threatened in Pakistan.

A security guard stands in front of Google's booth at the China International Import Expo earlier this month in Shanghai.

World News

'We're Taking A Stand': Google Workers Protest Plans For Censored Search In China

10:50am November 27, 2018

by Colin Dwyer

Several employees shared a letter with NPR calling on the tech giant to halt its reported work on a search engine project tailored to Chinese censorship demands.

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Tibetans cheer on a Tibetan team at a soccer tournament in London. Fans say they were pleased and surprised that the tournament organizers didn't succumb to pressure from potential sponsors and dump the Tibetan team to avoid angering the Chinese governmen

World News

How The Chinese Government Works To Censor Debate In Western Democracies

5:19pm October 03, 2018

by Frank Langfitt

China's leaders try to muzzle free expression beyond their borders, inside liberal democracies, when speech contradicts the Communist Party line on issues like the status of Tibet and Taiwan.

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Staff wait at the Cambridge University Press stand at the Beijing International Book Fair in August. An international outcry ensued when the publisher agreed to block certain articles from one of its journals after pressure from Beijing. The press later r

World News

In China, Scholars Are Being Punished Amid Growing Squeeze On Public Expression

11:24am October 10, 2017

by Anthony Kuhn

Space for public expression has been tightening in media, the arts — and now in higher education as well. Some university professors have been fired for expressing views outside the mainstream.

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Cambridge University Press had removed some 300 articles from the "China Quarterly" site at the behest of the censors, including articles about the Tiananmen Square military crackdown. Earlier this summer, thousands gathered in Hong Kong to mark the anniv

World News

'China Quarterly' Publisher Restores Articles Following Backlash From Scholars

8:24pm August 22, 2017

by Leslie Cook

Cambridge University Press had removed articles about Tibet, Taiwan and Tiananmen Square from its Chinese website at the request of authorities. Days later, the publisher reversed course.

Men look at computers in an Internet bar in Beijing in 2015. Even as the government finds new methods to block virtual private networks, providers find ways to go around the blocks.

World News

Behind China's VPN Crackdown, A 'Game Of Cat And Mouse' Continues

3:26pm August 04, 2017

by Anthony Kuhn

Savvy Internet users in China can tunnel under the "Great Firewall" using virtual private networks. Even as the government finds new methods to block VPNs, providers find ways to go around the blocks.

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