Torture and detention without trial

Imagine being locked away for years, yet never being charged or speaking to a lawyer. Imagine that while you are locked up the officials burn you with cigarettes, give you electric shocks, deprive you of sleep and leave you shackled for hours in excruciatingly painful positions. It may sound unimaginable, but for the people of China this is a reality.

Internet censorship

Expressing an opinion online in China can result in jail, torture and even death. Chat rooms are monitored. Blogs are deleted. Search results are re-routed. Websites are blocked. The government is watching your every move.

China in the headlines – 31 October 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• The China Digital Times looks at how efforts to control information and shape online public opinion are evolving.

• The Dalai Lama's envoys head to Beijing for talks with Chinese officials.

• A Chinese business weekly has filed a lawsuit against the regional government, after it was shut down for stories it ran about a major state bank.

Plus …

Internet companies take one small step, but not enough

Yahoo, Microsoft and Google have agreed to a code of conduct about how they do business in countries such as China, which restrict free speech.

The state of Chinese journalism

Hong Kong University's journalism program director, Ying Chan, talks about developments in the media in China.

China in the headlines – 29 October 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• China says it's still looking at talks with Tibet envoys, despite the Dalai Lama saying he has lost hope of agreement.

• More reaction to the news that jailed Chinese rights activist Hu Jia has been awarded a major human rights prize.

• Experience first-hand what Internet censorship is like for those living in Mainland China.

Plus …

Calls to stop Yang Jia’s execution

Chinese man Yang Jia could be put to death within a little as a week.

China in the headlines – 27 October 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• The moral strength shown by jailed Chinese dissident Hu Jia stands in sharp contrast to the state that persecutes him.

• The Dalai Lama is losing hope for Tibetan autonomy.

• Two people have been killed and hundreds injured after a clash between protestors, a timber company and police.

Plus …

Chinese activist wins top human rights prize

Jailed Chinese dissident Hu Jia has awarded Europe's most prestigious human rights honour, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought – it's a major acknowledgement of his work.

China in the headlines – 24 October 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• The US, China and the human rights agenda.

• A Beijing-based pastor has been detained and his two sons beaten by public security officials.

• A former vice mayor of Suzhou city is sentenced to death by a Chinese court.

Plus …

Death penalty appeal rejected in Yang Jia case

A Chinese court has rejected an appeal by Yang Jia who is facing the death penalty.

China in the headlines – 22 October 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• The Olympic crackdown on dissidents in China has likely set the stage for lasting tighter controls, say critics.

• China has issued a list of eight alleged Olympic terrorists – and they are all Uighurs, a repressed ethnic minority group.

• A Tibetan monk jailed in March after he helped make a film about the Olympics and Tibet was severely tortured while in prison.

Plus …

Add a widget for human rights in China

Add our China widget to your website or blog to encourage people to keep speaking up for human rights in China!

Breakthrough on media freedom in China

China's announcement it will extend the temporary Olympic media freedoms granted to foreign journalists is great news – but the freedoms should also be given to Chinese journalists.

China in the headlines – 20 October 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• A foreign correspondent gives his take on the news the China will extend the reporting freedoms it granted to overseas media for the Olympics.

• More on new rules requiring all first time visitors to any of Beijing's more than 1500 Internet cafés be photographed.

• A Beijing official who oversaw Olympic construction projects has been given a suspended death sentence.

Plus …

Call for China to extend its Olympic media freedom rules

China's temporary rules that freed up reporting regulations for foreign journalists, in the run up to the Olympics, expire today.

Blogging around the world

Want to know more about the lives of bloggers in some of the world's most repressive countries, well check out an event Amnesty International is hosting in Sydney this month.

China in the headlines – 17 October 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• New rules mean everyone visiting an Internet café in Beijing will be photographed.

• Claims that China has "black" jails, or secret prisons, which are being used to purge petitioners.

• More than a dozen villagers are detained following a clash with police, at a protest about compensation for a land development project.

Plus …

Internet censorship index shows little change

Despite official promises that the Olympics would help open up China, Internet censorship is still widespread, according to data from our specially designed tracking gadget.

The plight of China’s rural migrants

Al Jazeera English has filed a video report on rural migrants and why they are treated like second-class-citizens in China.