Playboy has launched the first issue of its Indonesian edition - a nudity free version that is less racy than competing local lad mags. Still, the launch of the product has sparked outrage among many of the country’s more fundamentalist Muslims.

Indcoup is also unimpressed, but for different reasons.:

It’s not Indah Ludiana. It’s not Sarah Azhari. And it’s not even Tiara Lestari.

Cos the playmate for the first edition of the Indonesian version of Playboy is Andhara Early.

But who the fu#k is she? I can hear you all shout.

Well, to be honest I haven’t got a clue.

Probably a second rate sinetron (Indonesian soap) actress I guess. Or perhaps they found her at some university campuses in this huge sprawling city.

But what about the product itself?

Well although the cover is a total … disgrace by Playboy’s normally high standards - have you ever seen a worse cover than that? - the inner pages are said to be a lot more revealing.

On the broader controversy, this January item from from Roy Tupai offers some welcome perspective.:

Islamic groups across the country are strongly protesting against the magazine, due to hit shelves in March, claiming it will destroy the morality of the nation’s young generation.

That’s rather odd, given that the publisher of the magazine has promised that Playboy Indonesia will respect local values, will not contain any nudity and will not be on sale to minors.

Furthermore, Indonesia already has a thriving black market in hardcore pornographic films, including bestiality titles, thanks to the support of corrupt police. Pirated hardcore pornography magazines are also available from certain street vendors. It’s quite easy for members of the nation’s “young generation” to purchase such salacious films and magazines for no more than Rp5,000 a title. That makes them somewhat more accessible than Playboy Indonesia, which will sell for Rp50,000.

Keeping on the subject of the “young generation”, child prostitution and trafficking exist in Indonesia, again thanks to cooperation from police and immigration officials on the payroll of sex industry syndicates.

And while it appears Playboy Indonesia will be rather tame, no one is raising a hue and cry over existing men’s interest magazines featuring photos of scantily clad women. Meanwhile, a growing number of the country’s domestic television networks are airing late night programs that show lingerie models on fashion shoots.

Then there are the smutty tabloids, such as Jakarta’s Pos Kota and Lampu Merah, which are filled with graphic stories about rape, prostitution, domestic violence and sexual abuse. The tabloids also contain luridly illustrated phone sex advertisements, as well as columns of classified advertisements for the services of prostitutes. The latter are thinly disguised as massage or health services, but the wording makes it abundantly clear what’s on offer. Take this recent example from Pos Kota (phone number partly omitted):

PENGOBATAN CEWEK2 CANTIK SEXY SERVICE OK MODEL MHSISWI (CHINES & PRIBUMI) LIVE SHOW/ LESBI/PASUTRI 081.8080XXXXX. [Medical Treatment from Beautiful Girls, Sexy Service Ok, Female Students and Models (Chinese & Indigenous) Live Show/Lesbian/Couples 081.8080XXXXX.]

Technorati Tags: censorship, indonesia, southeast asia, playboy

Via the Canadian journalist blog, a report that activists are seeking to prevent CCTV from broadcasting in Canada.:

Rogers’ attempt to bring nine Chinese TV channels to Canada has raised the ire of people protesting China’s reports Mike Oliveri of Canadian Press.

Critics say the Chinese television incites hatred; Rogers’ response is that people can “choose not to watch,” says the CP story.

Rogers says its job is to provide consumers with choice, and it will make the channels available unless the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission determines they’re not fit to air.

A group calling itself “Canadians Against Propaganda” says the channels are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. It says their programming would propagate Chinese communist ideology and incite hatred, that previous programs celebrated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. and concealed China’s SARS outbreak, and that its programs have attacked Taiwan and various religious groups.

AsiaPundit is shocked that Rogers Cable would consider carrying CCTV. It’s not so much that the stations promote hatred or communist propaganda, but AP can’t see Rogers attracting any new subscribers by offering some of the blandest and most idiotic television on the planet.

Technorati Tags: east asia, northeast asia, china, cctv

AsiaPundit has spoken with Yahoo staff who believed that the transfer of the company’s China operations to Alibaba would prevent the company being implicated in any further unsavory behavior and would limit further bad publicity.

That may have been naive.

Via Glutter, Marketwatch reports on a .:

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — The family of a Chinese journalist jailed for leaking state secrets is considering legal action against U.S. Internet portal Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) for its alleged role in providing information to authorities that led to his conviction, a Hong Kong lawyer said Monday.

"We are looking at taking legal action against Yahoo for providing information on Shi Tao to the Chinese government," said Albert Ho, who is representing the jailed journalist as his Hong Kong-based attorney. Ho also is a pro-democracy legislator and frequent critic of China’s communist government.

Ho said he is working with Shi’s mainland China lawyer to collect evidence in determining whether civil charges can be pressed against Yahoo at its headquarters in California or in Hong Kong.

As well, a Hong Kong legislator is going after the company for allegedly violating basic law.:

According to the AP, a Hong Kong lesislator has evidence that it was Yahoo’s Hong Kong branch that provided the information to convict a reporter, not the China branch. The Hong Kong branch does not have the same legal relationship with the government that Yahoo has insisted its Chinese operation does.

AsiaPundit has heard from people at or close to the company that no warrants were served on the Hong Kong office - which had remained ignorant of the situation on the mainland in regards to warrants or requests from Chinese authorities. The company said something similar before Congress.  So it seems unlikely that the company violated any Hong Kong law.

As well, AsiaPundit questions whether the company can be sued by Shi Tao’s family in Hong Kong for abiding by Mainland law. It seems very unlikely.

Still, given the bad press that this could cause the company, AsiaPundit would advise Yahoo! that the matter be settled quietly.

Technorati Tags: asia, yahoo, china, censorship, northeast asia

AsiaPundit had long been aware that many popular cartoons are animated in North Korea. But he thanks Angry Chinese Blogger for the reminder.:

Even North Korea has advanced beyond China in terms animation, having both a strong domestic market and an established Animation ‘finishing’ industry that uses modern techniques and equipment rarely found in China.

Though not widely advertised, North Korea’s SEK Studio produced many of the ‘in between’ cells for Disney’s “The Lion King” and “Pocahontas”. Both of which are believed to have been managed by outsourced companies in Europe/Asia, due to America’s trade sanctions against the communist state,

From a 2002 Asia Times item.:

North Korea never ceases to surprise, even to amaze. Nor is it in all aspects quite so cut off from global trends as we tend to think. True, not a lot that Pyongyang produces is of a quality to be readily salable worldwide. Among the better known exceptions are missiles. Among the less well known are cartoons.

What’s more, you’ve seen them. So cunning is this axis of evil, it’s even infiltrated Hollywood. Yup, we’re talking Disney. Pocahontas? The Lion King? Both of these used North Korean animation skills: presumably on a subcontracting basis, as otherwise they’d fall foul of the Trading with the Enemy Act. Europe has no such restrictions, so French and Italian producers have been getting cartoons made in Pyongyang since the mid-1980s. Recent titles include an Italian Hercules, and France’s Billy the Cat.

Technorati Tags: asia, korea, northeast asia

In another fine moment for the Lion City’s Finest, Singapore police busted an Australian man woman in a bear suit for stalking the British Queen:

AsiaPundit had some harsh words for the BBC last month after the Financial Times reported on the launch of a parallel BBC Chinese website and alleged that the Beeb would be censoring their content.

The BBC denied the allegation and said that the site was not part of its news operations but was part of its language program. Further, it added that while it would mostly be offering British news of a cultural nature, which would unlikely offend the Chinese government, it would not be censoring its service.

The China Digital Times, via Howard French, has run an item from an Indian Financial journal republishing the original allegations, prompting AP to revisit the matter.

While AP was initially harsh on the BBC after reading the allegations in the FT, he would like to note the service was true to its word and did not censor its site.

Nick Wong earlier this month reported that the BBC’s allegedly censored site was briefly blocked on the Mainland after putting a report on its fromt page regarding the Tiananmen Mothers’ Group.

Nick’s site has relocated to here, but a Google cache of the original post is .Tags: bbc, china, censorship, asia, northeast asia

To steal one of the Flea’s lines, now is the time at AsiaPundit when we dance:

AsiaPundit endorses

As noted earlier, China’s bogging foreign correspondents are having tremendous fun at the National People’s Congress. But while AsiaPundit, Running Dog and Lalaoshi are in hell, AP is pleased to note not only that local reporters feel essentially the same about the event, but also that the local reporter behind Non-Violent Resistance has managed to escape the assignment.:

Been pretty busy lately. I was in a gym on the jogging machine one afternoon a couple of days ago and watching the Foreign Minister’s press conference on TV. Saw quite some familiar journalistic faces in there, and I wondered at my own luck not having to cover this. To me, the NPC/CPPCC annual affair is the most tiresome, boring stuff to cover for a journalist. Fortunately I never really have to do much about it. When I saw economist Justin Lin Yifu mobbed by what looked like a hundred journalists waving recorders and shotgun microphones with that look on their faces that said “whatever you say is news to me!”, I knew it would be exactly the same old s***. OK, I know I am being extreme — there is extremely valuable information one can get from these conferences, but I am just incapable of extracting it from all the sound and fury. One very important journalistic skill missing.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, media, northeast asia

AsiaPundit has been covering the National People’s Congress this week and can report that he is satisfied with China’s political system. It’s a fine thing that China doesn’t have a fully functioning Western-style democracy.

Under China’s current system, parliament only meets 10 days a year. If it were any longer than that it would be even more unbearable. Today was day three, and AsiaPundit is practically ready to retire.

While AsiaPundit would usually complain that Chinese government figures and leaders of state-owned enterprises are not accessible enough to the media, he is reconsidering that position.

After sitting through Ma Kai’s press conference yesterday, AsiaPundit is now thinking that it may be a good thing that officials rarely engage the press - it preserves the sanity of both sides. The officials aren’t prepared to address the media and clearly don’t enjoy it. Foreign hacks have to endure 20-minute prepared answers to planted questions asked by state media, all the while fighting off the urge to sleep as the CCTV cameras pan the audience.

Fellow Shanghai correspondent Running Dog is finding the experience equally as rewarding.:

Stumbling up the steps of the Great Hall of the People, caked in sweat after wandering desperately around Tian’anmen Square on an unseasonably warm March morning as he searched for a gap in the police cordon, Running Dog realized that journalism, as such, wasn’t really for him. After three hours of twitching and mumbling grumpily to himself during the opening speech of the National People’s Congress by Premier Wen Jiabao, quickly followed by the sight of various media comrades, holding their mikes and notepads like knives and forks and pouring enthusiastically out of the Great Hall’s doors in order to rugby-tackle, head-lock and in at least one case paralyze fleeing delegates in the search for the all-elusive Golden Quote, Running Dog was even more convinced that he ought to change his profession.

Beijing reporter Lalaoshi is having equal amounts of fun.:

In the spirit of scientific policy-making in China, I give the National People’s Congress and its advisory body "3 F’s" for their performance during the 2006 annual plenary session so far this month.

F1. FLAKING: Delegates know what the top Party leaders will lecture them on during formal sessions and know they get no chance to comment on the content, so why bother entering the great lecture hall inside the Great Hall of the People? Best to hang out in the anteroom drinking tea and posing for photos or stand on the Great Hall steps (see photo evidence above) giving interviews to China Central TV reporters, who will air whatever you say.

F2. FLEEING: When approached by foreign journalists, basically anyone with a notebook, a savage white face and a press pass emblazoned with the word "Japan," turn your back with a sheep-like smile that says FEAR FEAR FEAR in nonverbal Chinese and walk away. If the journalist persists, have your aide stick a hand in the journalist’s face. Foreign journalists: Do the same when approached by local TV reporters who want sound about "democratization" in China.

F3. FIGHTING: Whoever you are, delegate or journalist, live by your barnyard instincts and block others to compete for scarce resources. Delegates, strong-arm past reporters and one another to get into the lecture hall (or the tearoom) on time. Delegates must also use giant swathes of the steps and the tearoom to set up posed photos. Journalists, shove one another to get interviews with the delegates scrambling to get avoid you and mob security check so you can hustle copies of the government work report before the help desk stops handing them out.

AsiaPundit is set for seven more days of listening to officials talk about the "harmonious society" and the "new socialist countryside." Should he survive this, he is looking forward to Shanghai and his usual beats of tech companies, MNCs and investment banks.

Normal posting should also return at that point.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, northeast asia, media

AsiaPundit was going to link to Imagethief’s posts on how US corporate leaders need to show some more leadership or on how Google may be the victim of a dispositioning campaign in China, but instead AsiaPundit will give this post on topless lemur photos top billing.:

So combining live actors and cartoons is a deadly sin, but it’s still OK for the state news agency to publish a photo of a t*pless woman clutching a lemur to her bare chest,

Ya gotta love this country. More Xinhua “Beauties with Animals” here. If you must.

If I get any Google hits to this page from searches for “lemur+bra” I’m abandoning the Internet forever.

Other interesting reading on lemur bras Google in China see Non Violent Resistance, and Rebecca’s article in the Nation, where she asks:

The question is not whether the Chinese Communist Party will succeed in hanging on to power. The real question is, For how long? A few years? A few decades? Another half-century?

If they can continue to distract the populace with pictures of women wearing lemurs, AsiaPundit would be willing to bet the CCP will be able to stave off the revolution for quite a while.

(Photo stolen from Xinhua, copyright unknown)

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, east asia, media, northeast asia

Thank you Roland! As an Asia-focused blog this site has been one of the few sites in the ’sphere’ not to have had fun with the Dick Cheney hunting accident. However, AsiaPundit now asks, how many lawyers has Wen Jiabao shot?

Q1. If Chinese premier Wen Jiabao shot someone, we would never hear about it. It never happened. If someone committed the indiscretion of disclosing the fact, there would be complete denial and then the entire state apparatus would be turned on the leaker of state secrets. Nothing will show up in the Chinese press. All Internet forums and blogs will be censored, so there will be no GPS coordinate analyses. Everything that appears in the foreign media will be denounced as propaganda by hostile forces.

Q2. The Chinese government officials have no sense of humor. There would be no jokes in the manner of Scott McClellan. But the Chinese people have a great sense of humor, because they don’t have much else left. Humor in such cases is bad, because the whole thing turned ugly and obscene the moment that the news came about the heart attack episode. Every comedian should feel some sense of remorse.

AsiaPundit is not aware of China’s premier shooting any lawyers, although quite a few property and human-rights lawyers have been jailed. Still, AsiaPundit does not anticipate any humorous Aerosmith songs to be ever written about Wen Jiabao. (link Cheney’s got a Gun)

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, east asia, northeast asia, cheney

Rebecca has posted the draft of the "Global Online Freedom Act" (GOFA) and has great coverage of yesterday’s hearings. One part of GOFA that struck AsiaPundit as interesting was the below section.:

UNITED STATES BUSINESS.—The term ‘‘United States business’’ means—

(A) any corporation, partnership, association, joint-stock company, business trust, unincorporated organization, or sole proprietorship that—

(i) has its principal place of business in the United States; or

(ii) is organized under the laws of a State of the United States or a territory,possession, or commonwealth of the United States;

(B) every issuer of a security registered pursuant to section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (emphasis added) (15 U.S.C. 78l)

Part ‘B’ is of interest as that the proposed legislation would not only cover Google but also the Nasdaq-listed Baidu, Google’s largest rival in the Chinese market. The fines that are suggested for non-compliance with the legislation range from $10,000-$2 million, which would be peanuts for Google, Microsoft or Yahoo - but more painful for Baidu and for  portals Sina and Sohu.

That’s still fairly inconsequential for all of the companies. The biggest damage, if such a bill passed, could come from the provision that would allow a user who is  "aggrieved" by a company failing to protect their user data to sue the company in a US court. Although the proposed fines imposed by the state could be tolerated by US companies and their Chinese counterparts, punitive damages can be crippling. Such damages exist simply to ‘teach companies a lesson’ and ’set an example’ for others. These damages can run in the tens of millions or higher. A US jury would surely consider aiding the imprisonment of a pro-democracy activist as something that would be deserving of a serious ‘lesson.’

If the case of Li Zhi were to be repeated, and such legislation were in place, the risk would likely be greatest for local portal Sina.com rather than Yahoo. Roland notes that both were implicated in the case.

Yahoo Inc would likely in the future be shielded from direct actions in US courts as its China operations are 60 percent owned by Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba, Sina, however, would be exposed to court actions through its Nasdaq listing. Note that the legislation would not be retroactive so Li Zhi could not seek redress, the above is just an example.

Google has not yet located any servers in China and it has said it will not offer any e-mail or blogging services in the country. In that sense, it is much more insulated from penalties than US rival Microsoft.

Baidu, as well, is facing trouble in the US due to its popular MP3 search function, which accounts for more than 20 percent of searches.

AsiaPundit suggests readers take a moment to appreciate the irony. In China, conventional wisdom is that the internet is a major regulatory grey area where foreign companies must tread cautiously. The internet is governed by over a dozen ministries and authorities and an investment could be easily put at risk by a number of them.

In the US, the market is developed, has relatively clear regulations and is predictable. Yet, Chinese internet companies are now facing risk due to what could be called a ‘political whim.’

It seems that the legislation that Chris Smith is proposing, though targeted at US companies, could have the most adverse impact on their Chinese rivals.

For further reading read RConversation (link to February 2006 archive, hearings were held on the 15th) and follow the links at Boing Boing.

Technorati Tags: asia, baidu, censorship, china, , microsoft, northeast asia, sina, sohu, yahoo

Call off the Congress! Cease the formation of the Internet Freedom Task Force. China’s internet censorship is completely in line with global norms.:

China has responded to international criticism of its internet regulations by saying its rules are “fully in line” with the rest of the world.

Government official Liu Zhengrong said western criticism of China’s internet censorship smacked of double standards.

He also said no one had been arrested just for writing online content.

According to a BBC correspondent in Beijing, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, these assertions contrast sharply with a number of recent cases.

Several people are reported to have been jailed in recent years for posting information on the internet deemed subversive.

…

“After studying internet legislation in the West, I’ve found we basically have identical legislative objectives and principles,” Mr Liu was quoted as telling the state-run China Daily newspaper on Tuesday.

“It is unfair and smacks of double standards when (foreigners) criticise China for deleting illegal and harmful messages, while it is legal for US websites to do so,” he said.

He also said that only a “very few” foreign websites were blocked, and that was mostly because they contained pornography or terrorist information.

The BBC News website continues to be blocked in China.

And he insisted that “no one in China has been arrested simply because he or she said something on the internet”.

The above story is from the UK’s BBC, which is blocked in China. A version is also available in the China Daily which doesn’t have any of those snarky comments about jailed dissidents or blocked websites. AsiaPundit would have linked to the story on official state news agency Xinhua, but the as he visited the xinhuanet site he was distracted by the pictorial of “flat-chested beauties.”

It’s quite a good spread, although a little tame for Skinhua. Xinhua isn’t porn by any means - they usually digitize any naughty bits that show up in their pictorials (which generally seem to be reproduced without copyright). However, it still runs far racier photos than anything the BBC has on its website.

AsiaPundit wonders what it is that the Beeb has done to get banned in China. It certainly isn’t porn. It must be because of “terrorist information!” AsiaPundit is shocked.

AsiaPundit is completely against terrorism and when he is in Beijing next month he will track down Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and will head-butt that stinkin’ limey terrorist enabler.

For more: Imagethief, Danwei, Rebecca.

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, cisco, , microsoft, northeast asia, yahoo

Before appearing in front of a Congressional hearing, Yahoo has decided to issue guidelines on how it is an ethical internet company. Rebecca gives Yahoo’s newest document a review and finds the company’s ethical guidelines vague and hollow.:

So. Let’s see. The second bullet point would be the one pertaining to hand-over of dissident information to the police. Yahoo! will probably claim that since its Chinese partner Alibaba now runs its Chinese e-mail service, there is nothing it can do… However such an argument would be a cop-out. Yahoo.com.cn is still a Yahoo-branded product. What happens to user data is being done under an American company’s name and that company is certainly morally responsible. User trust in their brand will be damaged no less than if Yahoo.com.cn were 100% run by American Yahoo! employees. Yahoo! really has two choices with its e-mail service: move it out of Chinese jurisdiction and thus most likely management, or make it MUCH more clear and obvious to the user (beyond the dense terms of service and user agreement that nobody reads) that their personal data is no more secure on Yahoo! than it is on any of the Chinese e-mail service providers.

AsiaPundit is particularly puzzled by the statement’s claim that Yahoo will strive to be as transparent as possible: “We will strive to achieve maximum transparency to the user.”

Yahoo China does not disclose that search results are censored, which Google.cn did at launch and as Microsoft has started to do with MSN Spaces. Yahoo/Alibaba’s “maximum transparency” is less than the bare minimums offered by Google and MSN.

Yahoo fails in transparency in other areas. It will not reveal the number of warrants it has received from the Chinese government - surely if such things are just a normal legal procedure they would be documented. It will not say where its servers were located when it handed over user data that was used to prosecute dissidents. It will try to direct questions about a 2003 incident on its China partner - with which it did not join until 2005.

Yahoo deliberately tries to be as opaque as possible.

Logo stolen from Boing Boing, which also has links to an NPR item on the company’s latest China scandal.

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, east asia, media, northeast asia

While the behavior of Malaysia Muslim’s has been exemplary throughout the crisis over the Mohammad cartoons, Malaysia’s government has shown that it retains its authoritarian view of press freedoms. Although milder means of censure were available, the state has decided to shut down the Sarawak Tribune for reprinting one of the controversial cartoons.:

Indefinite suspension for 61-year-old Sarawak Tribune

KUCHING: The 61-year-old Sarawak Tribune may not hit the streets anymore even after the suspension order has been rescinded, said the newspaper’s editorial advisor Senator Datuk Idris Buang.

He said the daily’s board of directors had decided to self-impose an indefinite suspension on publication at their meeting in Sibu yesterday morning, before the Government issued the suspension order.

“There may not be a Sarawak Tribune anymore,” he told a press conference at the newspaper’s office in Jalan Abell last night.

Idris said the board fully supported the Federal Government’s stand to suspend the licence of the Sarawak Tribune.

“We fully uphold the views and sentiments expressed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi,” he said.

“We are extremely ashamed of the damage and hurt caused to all Malaysians and the country due to the gross insensitivity and lack of responsibility on the part of whosoever involved among the staff in question, particularly the editor-on-duty.

“We join all Malaysians in condemning this act (reproduction of the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad),” he added.

Lucia responds:

300 people out of job….

300 people, including the toilet cleaner, the office boy, the security guard, the general cleaner, the accounts clerk… who would have nothing to do with the cartoons caricatures…

… these 300 people who are… er… were staff of the sarawak tribune, where the cabinet had made its decision to suspend it’s publication permit.

the information minister, abdul kadir had said that the absence of sarawak tribune in sarawak did not man there would be less news in the state because the public could obtain news from the other newspapers, radio and teleivsion.

yeah right… why highlight such a trivial matter? what does it matter anyway? what about the absence of sarawak tribune means 300 people would be out of job? obviously they (cabinet) didn’t realise that. obviously they were not sensitive enough to realise through their action, innocent people suffered.

well if sarawak tribune had been suspended for a week or two only, at least the staff would have hope of working again but i doubt it. the suspension might be over a very long period

UPDATE: Kenny Sia’s take is worth reading.

Technorati Tags: asia, cartoons, censorship, east asia, malaysia, media, southeast asia

Who will be the first model to be featured in Playboy Indonesia? Tiara Lestari* has said that she doesn’t want the honor. Perhaps the US publication could go with a historical pictorial, featuring former Indonesian first lady Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno. That link is mildly not safe for work but this not porn, it’s history:

Not too many Indonesian celebrities are willing to undress for the cameras.

But Dewi Sukarno, former first lady of Indonesia, was.

Born Naoko Nemoto, she was working days in an insurance company and nights as a hostess at the Kokusai Club in Akasaka, a place for foreign VIPs. It was there that a fateful meeting with a powerful world leader changed her life. In 1962, at the tender age of 19, she left Japan to become the third of the nine wives of Achmed Sukarno, the president of The Republic of Indonesia. Her full married name was Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno.

Many years later, in 1993, at the ripe old age of 53 she published a book of photos, many of them nude. The book was slammed in the mostly Islamic Indonesia for "violating eastern norms and insulting Indonesia’s dignity" and was banned by the Attorney-General’s office. Several years later, an Indonesian magazine published some photos from the book without permission.

Today the book is out of print and a highly valued collectors’ item.

*AsiaPundit would also congratulate Tiara on passing the 100,000 visitor mark. This site also crossed that threshold this weekend (although by another Statcounter, AsiaPundit had 100,000 visitors as of mid-December).

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, indonesia, media, playboy, southeast asia

Disturbing.:

Apparently some people don’t want Playboy coming to Jakarta. And this fellow is eating a Playboy DVD.

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, east asia, media, southeast asia

Next week, AsiaPundit hopes to see some frank disclosure about US internet and technology companies activities in China, with the four most-discussed companies being brought before Congressional hearings. AsiaPundit is naturally expecting much bombast and hyperbole as well. The WSJ item below mentions two suggestions from lawmakers: one is reactionary and hopefully a non-starter, but the other is more measured and could have some interesting implications.:

The hearing will likely produce more embarrassing publicity for the companies, and it may drive legislative momentum among lawmakers concerned about China’s influence on the U.S. economy. Congressional aides are expecting a standing-room-only crowd, and the reception from politicians may be chilly.

"I was asked the question the other day, do U.S. corporations have the obligation to promote democracy? That’s the wrong question," says Rep. Chris Smith, the New Jersey Republican and chairman of the House human-rights subcommittee that is holding the hearing. "It would be great if they would promote democracy. But they do have a moral imperative and a duty not to promote dictatorship."

Mr. Smith plans to introduce legislation next week that would impose restrictions on Internet companies seeking to expand into China but also provide some legal protection from Chinese demands.

The bill would require U.S. Internet companies to keep email servers used for Chinese traffic offshore. That would help prevent the Chinese government from compelling the release of Internet user data. The bill also calls for creation of an office inside the State Department that would make an annual determination about which countries are restricting Internet use. It would provide a framework for users to pursue legal action against U.S. Internet companies over privacy violations.

The disclosures about Internet companies cooperating with the Chinese government are having a wider political impact. Last week, Sens. Lindsey Graham, (R., S.C.) and Byron Dorgan (D., N.D.) cited Internet companies’ efforts to help the Chinese government monitor citizens’ online activity as a reason to permanently revoke China’s most-favored-nation trading status.

A removal of China’s trading status, also known as "normal trade relations," is unlikely to happen. And it shouldn’t. China is making progress in meeting most of its WTO commitments and is opening up faster than anticipated in other areas such as financial services. There is a push internally to accelerate opening and sanctions would clearly hurt reformers in China.

Graham  - along with Democrat Charles Schumer - has been pushing to put a 27.5% tariff on Chinese goods over charges that the country is a "currency manipulator." There is little doubt that China’s censorship regime concerns Graham, it concerns most people from free countries, but he will take any opportunity to bash China’s MFN status. The latest outburst shouldn’t yet be taken too seriously.

More interesting are Smith’s proposals. AsiaPundit is withholding full judgement on them for now, but based on the one-paragraph description above they seem relatively non-interventionist. Requiring that servers that contain users’ data be kept offshore would indeed directly limit what US companies could do in China. However, this seems to be the route that is now being taken by the companies themselves. Google is not offering Blogger or Gmail for due to privacy concerns and Microsoft’s altered blog-hosting policy is now attempting a compromise solution. After the highly publicized cases of Shi Tao and Li Zhi, Yahoo most certainly regrets establishing its Chinese e-mail service.

The idea of allowing users to pursue legal action against U.S. Internet companies over privacy violations is far more interesting.

On top of providing some measure of redress for those wrongfully jailed, AsiaPundit also assumes such legislation would extend to Chinese companies with US listings. Roland noted that the Nasdaq-listed  Sina provided information in the Li case.

US trials are expensive, and verdicts - particularly those delivered by juries - can be crippling. There are a number of Chinese internet companies already listed in the US and others, such as blog service provider Bokee, that are known to be seeking listings.

Things to consider: Could such a law scare some new listings away from US markets? Also, would its implementation force some interesting disclosures from Sina and others? If providing user information to authorities created significant financial risks, US-listed Chinese companies would surely be required to inform shareholders. This could move things beyond the realm of tech companies and NGOs and into the realm of trial lawyers and investment banks (hence the title of the this post).

Expect much chest thumping from Congress, defensiveness from the search engines and lobbying from everyone.

Related reading:
Silicon Hutong: Time for a Solution
ESWN: The Third Way for Yahoo

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, censorship, china, cisco, economy, , media, microsoft, northeast asia, yahoo

China Digital News linked to this Chinese journalist’s blog only a couple of days ago. I could log on it yesterday, but today I see this.  Apparently it’s only blocked in China, as MSN has promised.

Things are getting crazier by the day.

I wonder if language is my only layer of protection right now. Maybe I’ll be taken offline soon too.

This is how MSN’s new policy on censoring blogs is being practiced. The company will no longer erase a blog, as it did with Michael Anti’s site. It will only block it in the country where the government has requested a block. This is a step up, as users can still see the site through a proxy and as postings can be retrieved and placed elsewhere. AsiaPundit does hope that MSN will not be collecting the IP address and user details if the author chooses to do so.

Still, it would have been nice if Microsoft displayed the above notice in Chinese. That keeps the company still a few notches below Google, which does display its censorship notice in the local language.
(UPDATE: MSN does display a notice in Chinese.).
As AsiaPundit has mentioned earlier, the cooperation of internet companies in China’s censorship is only marginally upsetting. Users can still access the ‘real’ Google and more importantly the real simplified-Chinese Google, MSN Spaces still provides room for expression - even if the company did delete and now blocks blogs by the request of the state.

The thing that upsets AsiaPundit is that these moves are assisting in a greater evil, that which is the Chinese government’s attempt to muzzle an emerging critical press. With the shutdown of Michael Anti’s site, the block on the above site and the jailing of Shi Tao — something that is completely unforgivable — the targets were the domestic press.

The local press is where positive change will come from in China. A vibrant domestic press is more important than an unfiltered Google, or Microsoft, or Yahoo, although that would be welcome. The domestic press is what is read in China, and change will not come because of news articles by the BBC, NYT or my own agency, although these too are welcome. Change will certainly not come from US bloggers who seem more interested in picking on Google than they are in talking about the actual situation of the press in China. But AsiaPundit imagines that the CCP is less of a threat to Pajamas Media advertising revenue than AdSense is.

That internet portals are censoring themselves is bad, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. This is the true Evil!

Announcement of Beijing Municipal Administration Office of Internet Propaganda

All,

The media listed below are frequently chosen as sources for internet website, but they are currently not legally allowed to be copied. Please do not copy current news and politics from those media. Please especially keep away from copying them in the front page or headline areas.

We understand that the current limits on copying news are not easy to implement, but before we find better solutions, please cooperate with us. We will also keep guard for you, and penalize each of those sites that we find fail to follow the rules.

The Huashang Daily, The Chinese Business Morning View (Hua Shang Chen Bao), The Jiefang Daily Online–Shanghai Morning Post (Xin Wen Chen Bao), The Jin Chu Online-Chu Tian Metropolitan News (Chu Tian Du Shi Bao), The Bei Guo Online—Ban Dao Chen Bao, The Star Daily (Bei Jing Yu Le Xin Bao), The International Herald Leader (Guo Ji Xian Qu Dao Bao), The China Business News (Di Yi Cai Jing Ri Bao), The Hua Xia Jing Wei Online, The China Taiwan Online, Chongqing Morning News (Chongqing Chen Bao), The Oriental Morning Post (Dong Fang Zao Bao), Chongqing Business News (Chong Qing Shang Bao ), The First (Jing Bao), YNET.com (Bei Qing Wang), The Legal Evening News (Fa Zhi Wan Bao), The Today Morning News (Jin Ri Zao Bao), The Southern Metropolitan News (Nan Fang Du Shi Bao), Chengdu Evening News, Lanzhou Morning News, Haixia Dushi Bao.

There was indication that this was imminent in yesterday’s South China Morning Post:

Mainland internet companies are expecting new controls over their content that would prevent them from posting political and current affairs articles published by metropolitan newspapers on their websites, sources said.

But articles from magazines and party newspapers would be exempt from the soon-to-be-announced directives, the sources said, adding that metropolitan newspapers were targeted probably because they ran more negative news.

"Sohu will be the most affected because it focuses on domestic news, while Sina will be affected to a lesser extent because it carries more international news. Netease will also be affected because it needs local content to fill its news packages," one source said, referring to three of the mainland’s most popular news portals.

An outspoken journalism professor, who had been warned not to speak to foreign reporters, said he was not aware of the new policy, but described it as "beyond comprehension" and against the trend of the mainland’s economic openness.

"Portals cannot help but respect the rule, but in the longer term, such controls will not work because they go against the trend of economic opening-up," he said.

"We have to work for greater openness otherwise [the whole system] will break down."

AsiaPundit is thankful that, for the moment, the newspapers have been blocked from reproduction by the portals rather than shut. And Interfax notes an upside, both from the local press and from the internet.:

Most news published on the country’s top portals consists of republished reports from Chinese newspapers, not news written by the portals own staffers. By republishing stories on the Internet a report published in a regional newspaper can receive national attention.

The circular was originally leaked by a popular Chinese journalist blogger. Chinese journalists are increasingly turning to blogs and email to publish news that would otherwise not be published. It is likely that this new rule will only strengthen this trend, and will increase blog traffic to the detriment of China’s top portals, many of which are listed abroad.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, censorship, china, east asia, media, microsoft, northeast asia

This is the reason Google will not offer a localized version of gmail.:

CHINA

Another cyberdissident imprisoned because of data provided by Yahoo

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the US firm Yahoo ! for handing over data on one of its users in China which enabled the authorities there to send him to prison for eight years, the second such case that has come to light in recent months.

It called on Yahoo ! to supply a list of all cyberdissidents it has provided data on, beginning with 81 people in China whose release the worldwide press freedom organization is currently campaigning for.

It said it had discovered that Yahoo ! customer and cyberdissident Li Zhi had been given his eight-year prison sentence in December 2003 based on electronic records provided by Yahoo. “How many more cases are we going to find ?” it asked.

“We were sure the case of Shi Tao, who was jailed for 10 years last April on the basis of Yahoo-supplied data, was not the only one. Now we know Yahoo works regularly and efficiently with the Chinese police.

“The firm says it simply responds to requests from the authorities for data without ever knowing what it will be used for. But this argument no longer holds water. Yahoo certainly knew it was helping to arrest political dissidents and journalists, not just ordinary criminals. The company must answer for what it is doing at the US congressional hearing set for February 15.”

The foreign-based news website Boxun.com posted on February 5 the plea of cyberdissident Li’s lawyer, Zhang Sizhi, at an appeal court hearing in February 2004. Zhang said his client, who used the e-mail address and user-name lizhi34100, had been sentenced on the basis of data handed over by Yahoo ! Hong Kong in a report dated August 1, 2003.

Li, a 35-year-old ex-civil servant from the southwestern province of Dazhou, had been sentenced on December 10, 2003 to eight years in prison for “inciting subversion.” He had been arrested the previous August after he criticized in online discussion groups and articles the corruption of local officials.

Local sources said Yahoo! Hong Kong’s cooperation with the police was also mentioned in the court’s verdict on Li.

The US house of Representatives Committee on International Relations will hold a hearing on February 15 about the ethical responsibilities of Internet firms. Yahoo! has been invited to attend.

49 cyberdissidents and 32 journalists are in prison in China for posting on the Internet articles and criticism of the authorities.

For the Shi Tao case : www.rsf.org/article.php3 ?id_article=14884

‘How many others have there been?’ is a valid question. 

"How many more will there be?" is a better one.

(UPDATE: How many more? Technically zero.

Shortly after that question was written, AsiaPundit was reminded of his comment at China Herald on how many Yahoo staffers were relieved that the company "gave the whole China shop to Jack Ma" and won’t have to deal with something like the Shi Tao incident again.
That’s true, China’s Alibaba now controls Yahoo China, so there will be no direct control of activities in China by Yahoo itself (aside from a 40 percent shareholding in Alibaba and a seat on Alibaba’s four-man board held by Yahoo chief and co-founder Jerry Yang.)
Yahoo was today directing all media querries toward Alibaba. Alibaba responded, properly , that the company could not comment on a case from 2003 as Alibaba did not take over Yahoo China until 2005. So, the Chinese company said ‘talk to Yahoo Inc about anything Yahoo China did before October.’
That would put into doubt RSF’s statement that: "Now we know Yahoo works regularly and efficiently with the Chinese police." First of all it needs to be put into past tense.
Sure, Yahoo may have worked regularly and efficiently with the Chinese police, it may have just handed over whatever information Chinese authorities asked for at any time without question, or it may have only responded to formal legal warrants and requests without having a clue about the purpose of the warrants.
Also, assuming that either Chinese police or US Internet companies in China are ‘efficient’ is a rather bold idea. Yahoo’s China business was generally seen as a failure, which was part or the reason they ditched it. And Chinese police have a reputation for bumbling and brutishness. Efficiency really should not be expected from either of those two parties.
That said, as Yahoo hasn’t really explained the process that led to the arrests, RSF’s guess is as good as any. Unless Yahoo cares to fully detail what happened in both cases - and give some indication on how many incidents of this have not yet been uncovered - speculation must be welcome.)

(Addendum: While AsiaPundit is nitpicking the RSF’s statement, where the hell is  the southwestern province of Dazhou?)

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, east asia, , media, northeast asia, yahoo

Not a surprise, but China has ordered media not to publish the Mohammad cartoons. More surprising, domestic media have been instructed not to mention anything further about the devolving mess.:

Got word of an new injunction: no publication of the Danish cartoons that have pitted one fourth of the world’s population bitterly, even violently, against Europe; no further coverage of the aftermath.

Too bad. I was actually thinking of doing something on that. But the censors certainly reacted too late this time. Guess they don’t pull Spring Festival shifts like us journalists do. The "damage", whatever it is, is already done. Domestic media have covered the whole sad affair, the violence included. Although somewhat timidly when it comes to the European papers’ defence of and insistence on, their freedom of speech. Maybe this very phrase is already banned in publications.

Most of my colleagues’ reaction to the news of the ban was something like "Yeah, right. As if we WERE REALLY PLANNING to run those cartoons", followed by some verbal abuse concerning certain people’s potential IQ scores. Even without instruction I think Chinese papers do have the good sense not to do that.

But what about simple, brief and unbiased coverage of the aftermath? Or subtle-worded op-ed pieces on the issue that might appear in the press? Are the censors worried that even this could be harmful to religious and ethnic relations?  I guess so but it’s almost impossible to stand in their shoes and follow their perverse thoughts.

AsiaPundit will not be publishing any the cartoons that caused such an excuse to pillage and riot offense. However, in solidarity with the right of press freedom, the right to criticize religions, and the right to give offense, AsiaPundit will  publish a 21st century image of Mr Jacques Barrot, winner of the French Pig-Squealing Championships in rie-sur-Baise’s annual festival.:

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, cartoons

China has shown a sharp downward trend in press freedoms last year, while the Philippines remains dangerous and North Korea abysmal.:

While some countries in Asia have remained stable with regard to media freedom, there have been sharp downward trends in several Asian countries, particularly China, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Freedom House, a non-governmental organization that monitors press freedoms around the world, assessed the levels of press freedom in countries based on the prevailing legal environment, political and economic situation and the overall attitudes of authorities towards the media.

The surveys were generally concordant in their results, with China, Nepal, North Korea and the Philippines remaining the biggest causes of concern for journalists in Asia.

"Compared to last year, there really aren’t many positives in Asia," said Karin Karlekar, Managing Editor of the Freedom House survey. "While some countries have remained steady [Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong], we can see downward trends in many countries in the region."

North Korea was found to be the worst country in all surveys, showing no signs of improvement over the past couple of years. All media in North Korea continue to remain tools of Kim Jong-il’s state, while all foreign media are repeatedly portrayed by the regime as "liars" seeking to destabilize the government, according to the Freedom House report. However, the report also suggests that an increase in international trade has resulted in greater contact with foreigners, which might allow for greater access to international news reports in the near future.

China has also shown a sharp downward trend in 2005, said Karlekar, which can be attributed to increased censorship of newspapers and radio stations, and greater Internet surveillance.

According to RSF, the so-called "broadcasting Great Wall" in China has been growing over the past year: The Voice of Tibet, the BBC and Radio Free Asia are among the radio stations jammed by the government in 2005. 

• Reporters Withouth Borders - Wordlwide Press Freedom Index 2005 
• International Federation of Journalists - Targeting and Tragedy 
• Freedom House - Freedom of the Press 2005

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, east asia, north korea, northeast asia, south asia, thailand, burma

Torn and Frayed offers a writing guide for new arrivals in the Philippines.:

It is essential that your first sentence should include the words “7,000 islands”. Sprinkle the text with such phrases as “vibrant” (perhaps the most useful word when describing the Philippines), “crystal clear waters”, “hellish pollution”, “idyllic stretch of white sand”, “monster traffic”, “sunset”, “mishmash of cultures” “3,000 pairs of shoes”, “ferry disaster” and “vibrant (there it is again) night life”.

When describing the politics of the Philippines, you should always describe it as an “exuberant democracy”. Mention no politicians other than film stars or Imelda Marcos.

Never use the word “prostitute”, “bargirl” is much nicer. When describing nightlife make sure you mention the “ubiquitous San Miguel” and the fact that Filipinos eat only balut.

There is no need to discuss the history of the Philippines beyond a brief mention of the Bataan death march.

Since smiling Filipinos seldom venture out from beneath their palm trees (and then only to ride their beloved jeepneys to church), there is rarely any need to discuss the economy. However, if you must, you will find “default”, “$1 a day”, “stagnant”, “airport”, “unfulfilled potential”, “overseas remittances”, “hopeful” and “next year” useful phrases.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, media, philippines, southeast asia

Google’s top China challenger Baidu has put out an internet viral indicating that Google can’t speak Chinese, and further that Baidu is better for wooing women:

and t

(Via Bill Bishop)

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, , northeast asia