China’s ‘Great Firewall’ arrives in Sydney

  • Published on 29/07/2008
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Ten days out from the start of the Beijing Olympic Games, Amnesty International will be encouraging Sydney-siders to tear down a 20-metre yellow wall at an event in Martin Place from 1pm to 2pm on Wednesday 30 July 2008.

Stacked with cardboard bricks, the wall represents China's 'Golden Shield' or the 'Great Firewall of China' - a censorship and surveillance project devised by government to block and filter internet content and monitors China's internet users.

The 'firewall' has been on a three-month tour around Australia, as part of Amnesty International’s campaign to end internet censorship in China.

Passersby will have the opportunity to pull a brick out of the wall and sign postcards to show their opposition to internet censorship, and their support for the right to freedom of expression.

Amnesty International's National Director Claire Mallinson and China Campaign Coordinator Sophie Peer will speak at the lunch time event. Olympian Michelle Engelsman is the MC.

Internet controls have been increasingly tightened as the Olympics approach with control, regulation and censorship extending to various categories of internet users, including Internet Service Providers, bloggers and website owners.

"Numerous websites have been closed down for providing information deemed sensitive by the authorities, while Internet users who post such information risk detention, prosecution and imprisonment," said China Campaign Coordinator Sophie Peer.

"We are deeply concerned about the involvement of internet companies in censorship in China. We are calling on all Internet Service Providers operating in China - such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, Google, Sohu and Baidu - to publicly support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yahoo!'s AGM in the US this weekend provides the company with a unique opportunity to create lasting systems and structures that protect human rights," said Sophie Peer.

"Chinese authorities should be dismantling their system of internet censorship to allow freedom of information across the board in line with official promises of 'complete media freedom' made in the run up to the Games. And an unrestricted internet must exist well beyond the Games," said Sophie Peer.

Note to Editors:

The wall will be in Martin Place from 8.00am to 5.00pm on 30 and 31 July. A special lunch time event will be held on 30 July from 1.00pm to 2.00pm.

Amnesty International's online 'Day of Protest' is also taking place on 30 July. People who visit participating sites will see a slightly censored version, and experience more directly the reality faced by internet users in China.

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