Chinese news censorship challenged

Interesting AP story this morning. It's about Chinese journalists rising up and challenging the news censorship imposed by Communist party leaders.

BEIJING (AP) — In a rare move, some Chinese journalists are openly confronting a top censor after a southern newspaper known for its edgy reporting was forced to change a New Year editorial calling for political reform into a tribute praising the Communist Party. 

It takes a brave person to champion news freedom in China. But I couldn't help laughing at the bland "we never censor news" statements of the party. I liked this too:

The party-run Global Times newspaper hit back with a defense of the government line, publishing an editorial saying the media cannot exist "romantically" outside the country's political reality. The spat has become one of the hottest topics on China's popular microblog site Sina Weibo. 

I love that: cannot "exist romantically". Top-down leadership is always a disaster. Frankly, I can't imagine how the ruling party has kept such a huge number of people in line, for such a long time. But it sounds like they're breaking out now, and that's great news.

The pope's worst nightmare

Apparently, China rounded up 500 members of an evangelical Christian sect. One of their beliefs is guaranteed to drive the pope batty.

Those detained are reported to be members of the group Almighty God, which is also called Eastern Lightning, after a phrase from the Bible's Book of Matthew. Widely regarded as a heretical Christian sect, the group preaches that Jesus has reappeared as a woman in central China. It has been accused of targeting Christians, kidnapping and beating them to force conversions. 

A female Jesus! I'll bet steam comes out of the man-loving pope's ears when he hears anything about this group. Fun!

Authoritarians try to take over internet

Pretty good article at Yahoo about the insane rush to assert control over the internet. The usual suspects -- Russia, China, Iran, UAE, etc. -- want to control what people see on the net. Control, control, control. I swear, governments are morphing into churches.

Here's an excerpt in case you don't make it to the article (which is worth reading):

Google's Vint Cerf, the ordinarily diplomatic co-author of the basic protocol for Internet data, denounced the proposed new rules as hopeless efforts by some governments and state-controlled telecom authorities to assert their power.

"These persistent attempts are just evidence that this breed of dinosaurs, with their pea-sized brains, hasn't figured out that they are dead yet, because the signal hasn't traveled up their long necks," Cerf told Reuters.

You have to love a guy like Vint. You hafta.