Reporters Sans Frontieres reports that “on some estimates” around 30,000 people in China are employed just to monitor Internet usage and censor views. Their report gives a lot of interesting detail on just how and how thoroughly message board censorship is practiced in China.
This week’s edition of On Digital – the radio programme from the BBC World Service – includes a segment on the report.
For more on Internet censorship in dictatorships, check out the recent book “Open Networks, Closed Regimes“.
Internet experts are moving into China. This was a very interesting article:
“Nolan Quan heading for China as Internet Expert in April 2004 with Horwath and Genesis Technologies.”
I guess China technology stocks will be big. The article went on to say…
“Only twice since the fall of 2000 have investment bankers priced 20 or more IPOs in a single month. The last time was in December 2003 (bankers priced 24 IPOs) and prior to that was in November 2000 (bankers priced 22 IPOs), according to available records. But there is more to the February 2004 IPO story than just 20 companies going public. Banks raised nearly $5 billion in the IPO market, and earned for themselves more than $280 million in fees.
Nolan Quan will be heading to the Far East to assist Asian companies to gain access to Western capital markets. He will visit companies in Hong Kong, Shanghais and Singapore in April and May 2004.”
Comment by Rob — 15 March 2004 @ 8:14 pm