China Leads World in Jailed Journalists
Now maybe you understand how dangerous my job is, ladies.  Maybe you thought I was just some lazy web writer.  Well, I'm not.  I'm a renegade.  Every word I write could be my last.  At any time, my door could get kicked in and I could get taken away.  Lucky for you, it wasn't today.  In a survey released Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists announced that China has jailed more journalists than any other country in the world.  While, of course, the numbers are unreliable, CPJ believes at least 31 journalists are locked up in China.  This is the eighth straight year China has led the world in jailed reporters and according to CPJ, 19 of the 31 reporters were internet journalists.  Most all of the cases were brought under these vague anti-state subversion laws which are pretty much used to convict Chinese writers for either publishing content critical of the government or endorsing Western-style democracy.  The most high profile jailed journalist case is that of Shi Tao, who posted detailed notes online about how the Chinese government seeks to conceal the true story of the 1989 Tiananmen Square riots.  Shi is currently serving 10 years for leaking "state secrets."  And this issue, among others, has caused China to continue its seemingly futile crusade to control the internet.  CPJ's executive director said, "China is challenging the notion that the Internet is impossible to control or censor, and if it succeeds there will be far-ranging implications, not only for the medium but for press freedom all over the world."  With new technology emerging to subvert what another China blog calls "the internet fairy", it seems somewhat absurd to genuinely believe that the internet can be censored the way the Chinese government has effectively censored other media.  So until Beijing can fully control the content of the web, it will go after the easy targets.  And these are the people who write the content.  So, my journalist homeys locked down, as the incomparable Jay-Z once said, "Put it down hard for my dogs that's locked in the bang.  When you hit the bricks, new whips, money ain't a thang."  Keep ya heads up.     

•AP: China Leads World in Jailing Journalists
•CPJ: Internet Fuels Rise In Number of Jailed Journalists

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