China blocks Yahoo and YouTube over Tibet

18 March 2008

China has blocked access to YouTube and some news services, it has been reported.

The move, which left Chinese citizens unable to visit the video-sharing site, Yahoo News and The Guardian newspaper's website, among others, is thought to be an attempt to censor international coverage of unrest in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. The unrest, which spread to other regions over the weekend, is claimed to have cost up to 99 lives, though Chinese authorities say that 13 have died.

Reports on Danwei, a website reporting on Chinese media and advertising, suggest that Chinese users are receiving 'connection reset' error messages when attempting to visit barred sites.

Commenting yesterday, one user wrote: "I'm in the south of China, and many news sites containing Tibet-related articles are blocked with connection reset errors. This includes the entire Guardian website, as well as all news links from Yahoo, etc. Some sites, like USA Today, seem fine."

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has made a formal complaint to the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Fu Ying, accusing the authorities of "an act of deliberate and wholly unacceptable censorship".

"We believe this is the first time the Guardian's website has been censored and would seek your assistance in ensuring that access to our pages is not only quickly restored but remains henceforth unfettered," wrote Rusbridger.

Category: Online journalism, Video sharing, Yahoo