I have to admit I was a little surprised that Google did not post any special doodle along its logo for what, in my view, is one of the most important days in the socio-political calendar. In 1991, the United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 the World Press Freedom Day or just World Press Day. The day was so named to increase awareness of the importance of freedom of the press, and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression.
China, a charter member of the United Nations and one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, not only fails to fulfill this mission, but also contaminates this world organization. The quietness of Western (social) media seems to corroborate the recent report that some Western organizations, including business and academia, automatically censor themselves and follow the repressive laws made in China. The most recent Time magazine, for instance, does not put the Chinese President Xi on its main page of its cover story together with four other authoritarian leaders for an article about “strongmen.”
The Chinese President Xi is a dictator, who ended the two-term limit established in the Chinese constitution by attempting to fool the world with a bad joke, namely, that 1.35 billion Chinese unanimously not only agreed to but also begged him to stay in power. Peter Dahlin is a Swedish human rights activist who was arrested by the Chinese police, tortured and forced to “confess” on the Chinese government-run TV station. He says that Time magazine acted in an apparent self-censorship, and twittered that this action is “like writing about mid-20th century fascist leaders and not including Hitler, while putting Mussolini front and center, along with Franco and Hirohito.”
Zigor Aldama, a Far East Asia correspondent based in Shanghai, complained on Twitter, “Shameful to see how they [LinkedIn] kowtow to the Chinese censorship.” Mr. Aldama recently posted an article about Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest for 8 years just because she is the wife of the deceased Chinese Nobel Peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo. In an absurd twist, LinkedIn warned him that the content of his post was illegal in China and therefore his contacts in China would not be able to see it.
The Chinese people do not have freedom of press because the Communist regime jails, tortures and persecutes outspoken journalists, human rights lawyers and any citizen who “dares” criticize the government in social media. Sadly, people outside China who live in free countries, like the United States, and enjoy their protected human rights, also fear to tell the truth and defend the oppressed. In December 2017, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that the Chinese government had jailed 41 journalists. At least seven dissidents and journalists have died in custody or shortly after being freed since 2013, according to Human Rights Watch.
“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” ― George Washington