China continued Internet censorship to regulate deadly earthquake news

Washington, May 25 : Even when the deadly 7.9-magnitude earthquake wrecked havoc in China earlier this month, the Government censors in the country continued to monitor the Internet.

"Reporters rushed to the scene, and there was general feeling that the government had lifted the restrictions on reporters," Wired News quoted Robert Dietz, the Asia program coordinator for the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists, as saying.

"But the central propaganda department never stopped handing down directives, never stopped telling people how much to report," he added.

For controlling the Internet, China uses its "Golden Shield" program which is also known in the West as the "great firewall".

A report revealed that the news coverage following the May 12 earthquake in China's Sichuan province was naturally empathetic, making the censorship regime redundant.

However, the presence of the government's internet police was felt later when Chinese citizens began criticizing the response to the earthquake online.

ANI