What Freedom Of Speech?

I went to Beijing recently and was trying to upload my blog from there. I could not.....I thought nothing initially, until I realized that from any network points I tried in Beijing, the result when I tried to access this blog was the same; The Page Cannot be Displayed, etc. etc.

I started to wonder whether there is some kind of censorship being done by the Chinese government. Well, the answer turned out to be yes! I found it out after receiving my latest subscription of Business Week after I returned home. The article mentioned that the PRC does put censorship for websites and blogs, and they basically look for "suspicious" words (in English and Chinese) such as democracy, falun gong, etc. If any of those words were written, you can be assured that those words will turn out jumbled on the website.

It was quite a revelation, knowing that in certain parts of the world, some people are not allowed to express their opinion freely. Here I am, being oblivious, writing whatever I wish in this blog, while others can be persecuted if they write just a tiny bit of "subversive" materials. I am just glad I don't live in these places, I cannot imagine having this one right denied.