China: Setting Freedom of Speech back 100 years.

[Gan]

THE former editor-in-chief of a Chinese Website has been given a six-year prison term for subversion, the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court in east China's Zhejiang Province said.

The court ruled yesterday that Zhang Jianhong, former editor-in-chief of a Website named "Aiqinhai," or "Aegean Sea," had written articles which defamed the Chinese government and amounted to agitation aimed at toppling the government.

After his Website was shut down and he was punished for illegal practices, Zhang had published more than 110 articles under the pseudonym "Lihong" on overseas Websites from May to September 2006, the court said.

A court statement said that in more than 60 articles, Zhang had slandered the government and China's social system to vent his discontent with the government.

The court also deprived Zhang of his political rights for one year.

The statement said the court had showed leniency in the trial as Zhang showed remorse after his arrest. Zhang was unemployed after his Website was closed.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200703/20070320/article_309627.htm

[Skeeter]

but communism is a backlashian utopia. He must have deserved it since he showed remorse.

[Warriorbird]

We never hear about Russia doing worse. Kinda funny. Too bad that both parties are in China's pocket or we might actually do something about the trade surplus and bonds issue.

[Xandalf]

DAMN the Chinese!

First Jack Bauer.

Then Audrey Raines.

AND NOW THIS?!?!?

[Parkbandit]

I think this story shows that freedom of expression is alive and well in [China]

:)

[DeV]

I doesn't seem like the Chinese government knows the concept of individual liberties let alone human rights. The part in their constitution that guarantees freedom of speech is obviously some sick joke.

Feedom of speech as long as you don't say anything bad about the government. Yeah, sure.

[Apathy]

Thank god we don't have pointless cases here that attempt to suppress our free speech. We are mentally evolved.



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court entered into a free-speech dispute Friday involving a high school student suspended over a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner.

The justices accepted an appeal from a school board in Juneau, Alaska, after a federal appeals court allowed a lawsuit by the family of Joseph Frederick to proceed.

Frederick was suspended in 2002 after he unfurled the 14-foot-long banner -- a reference to marijuana use -- just outside school grounds as the Olympic torch relay moved through the Alaskan capital headed for the Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

"Bong," as noted in the appeal filed with the justices, "is a slang term for drug paraphernalia."

Even though Frederick was standing on a public sidewalk, school officials argue that he and other students were participating in a school-sponsored event. They had been let out of classes and were accompanied by their teachers.

Principal Deborah Morse ordered the 18-year-old senior to take down the sign, but he refused. That led to a 10-day suspension for violating a school policy by promoting illegal drug use.

He filed suit, saying his First Amendment rights were infringed upon. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, California, agreed, concluding the school could not show Frederick had disrupted the school's educational mission by showing a banner off campus.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court relied on the Supreme Court's famous 1969 "Tinker" case, in which two Iowa high students were allowed to continue wearing anti-Vietnam War armbands.

But the justices in other appeals involving free speech have ruled against students' ability to give sexually suggestive speech, and in favor of a school's right to restrict what is published in student newspapers.

Attorney Kenneth Starr, the former Whitewater prosecutor who investigated President Clinton's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, is representing the school board.

Starr, who is now dean of the law school at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, urged the high court in his appeal brief to clear up the "doctrinal fog infecting student speech jurisprudence."

According to an Associated Press report, Starr is handling the case free of charge.

The case will test school's ability to regulate speech on illegal drugs, particularly when it is done off school grounds.

The appeal will likely be argued in late February, with a ruling expected by late June.

The case is Morse and the Juneau School Board et al. v. Frederick (06-278).



Doh.

[Artha]

I'd like to think you're kidding up there, Apathy.

[sst]

Subversion is a crime here too.

[Latrinsorm]

CHINA IS HITLER

[Tsa`ah]

Subversion is a crime here too.

In a broad general sense, no. Specific types of subversion ... sure. However, China (and you) are confusing subversion with dissent.