From the EastSouthWestNorth blog (link), a translated opinion piece by Jiao Guobiao, former associate professor of the School of Journalism and Communications, Peking University:
May 3 is International Free Press Day. On May 3 last year, I was in Washington DC attending the commemorative meeting organized by international press organizations and I provided testimony about the lack of press freedom in China. This year, on May 3, I want to write a few words to thank the FLG group for their contributions towards promoting press freedom in China.
A while ago, I was dining at Peking University with a veteran news worker who has been in China, the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan. She said that she has been vexed recently and no longer wanted to stay in China. I asked why and she said in a complaining tone: “I can’t visit overseas websites! China is crazy. They block this and they won’t let you read that. It is so frustrating.” She had been stationed in Beijing for many years as a foreign correspondent. This year, she quit her reporter’s job and accepted a teaching position at Peking University. I was curious: “Then … why don’t you use Ultra*reach or Free*gate?” “I’ve been using them, but I don’t know why they have not been working recently.” I smiled and said: “Oh! You can’t say that you don’t want to live in China for a trivial thing like that. Let me give you a new version and that should do it.”
