China Censors HIV/AIDS Awareness Documentary 120
eldavojohn writes "Amnesty International is reporting an unusual case of censorship in which Chinese police questioned HIV/AIDS workers in China and instructed them to cancel an airing of a documentary made by Aizhixing Institute of Health Education on the disease. The director of that NGO recently left China after constant police harassment. The canceled documentary was about Tian Xi, a patient who contracted HIV by blood transfusion at age 9."
Fuck China (Score:3, Insightful)
Mod me flamebait or troll, but to hell with any country in the world that deems it proper to censor their people.
Re:China Censorship Is Not News (Score:5, Insightful)
The day we start accepting it is the way we lose.
Re:Fuck China (Score:3, Insightful)
China Censorship Is News (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you're totally wrong.
With the regression of freedoms in the western world (Anglosphere especially) , we can draw parallels with situations that've arose in our own countries. Truth be told, when authority is sufficiently potent it will attempt to sweep anything that suggests shortcomings on its part firmly under the carpet. In the end people are less informed, and in this case when we've a health matter it's obviously counter to the well-being of the population at large to suppress stories like this one. AIDS is a big problem in China; not nearly the same level as it is in sub-saharan Africa, but nevertheless it is a large public health concern on around the same level as the US or parts of Europe.
It's news because of how much we ourselves have shifted in that direction, under guise of 'stopping the terrorists' or 'protecting the children' or any other stock reason that gets trotted out every time something oppressive gets on the statute. Unlike the past where authoritarian soceity spawned from power-hungry people after a revolution, our journey in that direction is an evolutionary process; a softly, softly approach.
I've spoken with individuals from China over the years; they know perfectly well how corrupt and rotten the whole Communist party is from the honchos in Beijing to the district governors, to petty civil servants. The whole system is infested with crooks and sanctimonious hypocrites; it actually makes the British or US government seem rather decent in comparison. But even though many Chinese are aware of this, it doesn't alleviate the fact they're denied knowledge which could well help in the battle with HIV. That some person under an assumption of their own moral superiority would deny people knowledge about something like this and send some thugs over to pester the creator of the work is pretty appalling.
Re:China Censorship Is News (Score:2, Insightful)
I wish I had mod points, because the parent is deeply Insightful.
Re:good move, USA should also ban hysteria reporti (Score:5, Insightful)
Under the guise of banning hysteria reporting, china bans anything that makes corrupt public officials look bad.
Re:Fuck China (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure what you meant to say was "to hell with any country that is open about censorship, and doesn't hide behind the media and state secrets".
The degree of open censorship within a country is proportional to the number of bullets that country is willing to use to enforce its censorship. So its not really a positive that they don't bother to hide it.
Re:Fuck China (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fuck China (Score:2, Insightful)
What about -1 , "Censorship" ?
He basically said what i was thinking ( i can't speak for anyone else ) , but i don't say it , because i don't want to modded down.
So in a sense , that's a form a self-imposed censorship.
Re:China Censorship Is News (Score:3, Insightful)
And to add to this line of reasoning, in the US, the abstinence neo-cons have censored, by removing funds from adequate sex education in the US. SO we have as a result, far more STDs, unwanted pregnancies, children in poverty, and the emotional and financial toll for these.
The Bush Administration did it by withholding funds, condom education, free needles, and many other action that would appear on the surface to condone their visage of immoral behavior, but instead, just abetted stupidity.
Try as you will, you won't stop people form having sex. A rational expectation is to make people educated about choices, and push them as much as is rational towards making choices that don't cause pregnancy or spread disease. The Chinese, in this case, are in denial, just as George Bush was.
mod parent up (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh please. Your implication is surely that there is some country such as, I don't know, the USA that is just as China bad but hides it, somehow making China more admirable.
Indeed, the fact that what censorship there is in the US might be disguised or hidden is itself a sign of freedom. Otherwise the boot would come down just as it does in China. "At least they are honest about it" only means that they are more willing to use force to suppress dissent, and don't fear dissent since they can imprison or kill dissenters. Don't like it? They'll imprison or kill you too.
wow (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The final AIDS solution (Score:3, Insightful)
In the US, life is considered so "precious" that we mandate everyone live in agony for as long as possible no matter the condition.
I thought that the public health care in US is in such a state, that this doesn't happen? Who is mandated to pay for this kind of extended care?
Hmm, or was it so that there's this class of people who are considered too rich to have free health care, but too poor to insure themselves or pay for it themselves? So is it like, if you're poor enough, government will keep you alive as long as you live, and if you're rich enough, your insurance or your family will keep you alive. But if you're in the between, then you're free to rot to death at home?
Despite the tone of text above, I'm actually really curious. How is for example cancer or type 1 diabetes diagnosis and treatment in the US, for the poor, the middle class and the rich?