Tag Archives: China

The 24th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square_man_blocks_tank_238 Yesterday, I had two reminders of how important shortwave radio is in China.

The first was this incredible recording shared by David Goren–an unidentified Radio Beijing announcer who departed from the script and commented on the massacre of protestors in Tiananmen Square in 1989. It’s believed this announcer is still imprisoned:

The second was an article that a journalist friend had posted. It’s simply a list of search terms that the Chinese government blocked on Sina Weibo as of June 4th. Of course, the list contains words you would assume would be included, like: 1989, 89, vigils, and memorial ceremony. But it also includes words like: Internet block, sensitive word, and inappropriate for the public. Think of how many sites and posts this blocked (certainly ours!). Of course, there are many more terms on the list–check out this article on China Digital Times for more information.

So why is shortwave radio still important in China? It’s impossible to block those search terms on radio.

Spread the radio love

Epoch Times: Radio Taiwan International dismantling two transmission sites?

3 Replies

RadioTaiwanInternationalLogo Update: This article, from the Epoch Times, is somewhat misleading: it appears that RTI is not actually being silenced; rather, they’re merely removing sites that are retired and redundant. See post comments for more info.

(Source: Epoch Times)

Media freedom in Taiwan is again under attack by political forces from mainland China, resulting in a sudden decision by Radio Taiwan International (RTI) to dismantle two of its substations. Among RTI’s customers who will lose their contracts are Sound of Hope Radio and Radio Free Asia, which have played an important role in broadcasting uncensored news to the mainland.

Earlier this month, RTI’s largest customer, Sound of Hope Radio (SOH), received a notice that the Huwei substation in Yunlin County will be dismantled beginning June 1. The eight radio antennas pointing towards China will be removed ahead of schedule, and the broadcasting business will also stop at the end of May.

Tainan, another RTI substation in Tianma, will also be dismantled in a few months’ time, according to an insider.

[…]According to insider information, RTI high-level executives visited mainland China at the end of February. Soon after, RTI announced its intention to take down the two substations.

Following the removal of the substations, RTI will terminate all its rebroadcasting customers and also stop its own shortwave broadcasting, and develop a mobile platform and Internet broadcasting instead, the insider said.

Zeng (Allen) Yong, President of SOH, told The Epoch Times he had rushed to Taiwan as he was very concerned about RTI’s move to terminate its main customers in the name of consolidating substations and eventually ending shortwave broadcasting into China–a matter of great concern to the Communist Party, which censors media in the mainland.[…]

Read the full article at The Epoch Times.

Spread the radio love

Sky News reporter detained in China while on air

2 Replies

This is not a shortwave radio news item, but nonetheless relevant in the context of free press (or lack thereof) in China:

Thanks to Andy Sennitt for sharing.

Spread the radio love

China appears to be jamming the BBC World Service (and the SWLing Post)

7 Replies

Structure of a Denial of Service attack. (Image: WikiMedia Commons)

No doubt, in publishing this, The SWLing Post will be hit with another barrage of denial-of-service attacks. If you notice the site loading slowly, or completely off-line for periods of time in the near future, you’ll know why…

A few weeks ago I mentioned various upgrades to the SWLing Post web server. Part of this is due to our increased traffic and part is due to the fact that we were moving to a more secure server.

You see, recently I posted an article with a recording of Firedrake along with a follow-up from Post reader, Mark. Two days later, The SWLing Post was hit with denial-of-service attacks from IP addresses, all of which appeared to originate from China. It almost brought the whole server down–however, my intrepid web host, CloudWeb, scrambled to block the offenders, and they did an amazing job. You may note that I had to temporarily remove the Firedrake posts (they’ve since been re-published). I don’t consider this to be a conciliation, but rather a victory: for free speech, and for its power on shortwave radio.

Anyone who follows the SWLing Post with regularity will know that I’m a strong believer in access to and freedom of news and information, so I’m a bit annoyed by the DoS attacks that attempt, however unsuccessfully, to mute our voice in China and throughout the world. No doubt, The SWLing Post is already behind the “great” firewall, anyway.

If our site does go down, follow our updates on Twitter and Facebook.

With that preamble behind me, I owe my thanks to Andy Sennitt for bringing this article to my attention:

Reuters-Logo1 (Source: Reuters)

Radio broadcasts in English from the BBC World Service are being jammed in China, the British broadcaster said on Monday, suggesting the Chinese authorities were behind the disruption.

“The BBC strongly condemns this action which is designed to disrupt audiences’ free access to news and information,” the BBC said in a statement.

China, which enforces strict restrictions on its domestic media, has been accused by several prominent foreign media of seeking to stop their news reports reaching Chinese audiences.

“The BBC has received reports that World Service English shortwave frequencies are being jammed in China,” said the London-based public service broadcaster.

“Though it is not possible at this stage to attribute the source of the jamming definitively, the extensive and coordinated efforts are indicative of a well-resourced country such as China.”

A duty officer at China’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment.

[…]”The jamming of shortwave transmissions is being timed to cause maximum disruption to BBC World Service English broadcasts in China,” said Peter Horrocks, director of BBC Global News.

“The deliberate and coordinated efforts by authorities in countries such as China and Iran illustrate the significance and importance of the role the BBC undertakes to provide impartial and accurate information to audiences around the world.”[…]

Click here to read the full article by Estelle Shirbon; with additional reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer at Reuters.com

For more stories like this, follow our tag: Why Shortwave Radio?

Spread the radio love

New book focuses on China’s Firedrake jamming

China blocks foreign websites for one hour

2 Replies

(Photo: International Herald Tribune)

(Source: The Guardian)

China’s internet users have been cut off from accessing all foreign websites for around an hour in an unexplained incident that sparked speculation the country’s censorship system was being tested or further tightened.

The “great firewall” already blocks many sites hosted from other countries, but users in Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of China reported that they could not reach any foreign sites whatsoever on Thursday morning – although it was not clear whether the problems were universal.

Meanwhile, users abroad and in Hong Kong – which is part of China but not subject to Beijing’s net censorship – said they were unable to reach any sites on the Chinese mainland.

Some believed it was purely a technical failure, with several suggesting that Wednesday’s massive earthquakes had hit an undersea cable, disrupting services. In 2007, a tremor hit a major cable and dramatically slowed access to overseas sites for months.

Xu Chuanchao, an executive at Sohu, one of the country’s biggest internet portals, wrote on his microblog: “This malfunction is caused by the failure of China’s backbone network and is under renovation.”

But one company, Data Centre for China Internet, posted: “Latest news: most foreign websites can’t be accessed. Analysis: for commonly known reasons, a large number of foreign URLs are blocked. It is possible that the great firewall is undergoing some readjustment, mistakenly adding many foreign websites to the blocking list. The details are unclear.” (Continue reading article…)

What is clear is that we know China actively blocks foreign websites that criticize their government. The Chinese website of the Voice of America and Radio Canada International have been blocked for years. China also censors search engine results.

I believe this incident was most likely a fault in their “great firewall” rather than any network backbone. International broadcasters should take note: as you pull shortwave services targeting China, how will your audience there hear you?

Spread the radio love

Scrambling to keep VOA China on the air