CHINA: For the Chinese citizen, surfing the net can be a frustrating experience, particularly if you are trying to track down information about controversial issues like the Falun Gong movement, Tibetan independence or the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
A routine search in Chinese on Google for the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement directs users to a string of critical articles from state-run think tanks or agencies.
Most Chinese people know that their access is being censored and that censorship is tight. Technically aware Chinese, especially those just returned from overseas, use proxy servers in Hong Kong or the United States, to get around the firewalls.
But for those who do not have this option, there is little critical information available.
The BBC news site is blocked. When you click on the site - ironically the headline "Google censors itself in China" - you get the message: "This connection was refused after attempting to contact news.bbc.co.uk". When you do a search for "BBC" you are guided to sites offering tuition in "BBC English".
A search for the prominent dissident Wei Jinsheng, whose calls for democracy in 1978 led to years of imprisonment and exile, yields many hits, mostly because "Wei" and "Jinsheng" are popular names. The few sites that do refer to the dissident himself describe him as a "counter-revolutionary" and are generally unsympathetic.
The Free Tibet Campaign has protested to Google about its service "Google Earth", in which the word Tibet is not recognised ("Lhasa, Tibet" produces no results , whereas "Lhasa, China" is accepted).
"When I try to use [ China's most popular search engine] Baidu to search for the 'June 4th, 1989 incident' (Tiananmen Square), I can't find the four words," wrote one contributor.
"Excuse me, but are these forbidden words in our country?"
