censorship

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China has imposed new rules and regulations on Internet news sites in an attempt to further control the content put out by news agencies and other news websites. Authorities say the new measures will "satisfy the public demand for receiving news and information from the Internet as well as safeguard public interest," according to official news agency Xinhua. China’s proactive and bulging Internet police department will block sites that are contrary to public interest and are not “conducive to social progress”. This extends to educational websites containing news such as Breaking News English.com, which was blocked earlier this year. The Ministry of Information said it will “standardize the management of…information” and allow only “healthy and civilized news” online. China’s rapidly growing population of Internet users is the second largest in the world at 100 million, surpassed only by the United States, which has 135 million. The Web has quickly emerged as an influential and primary source of news from around the globe, which is cause for alarm for the government. It now requires domestic news sites to only post news on current events and politics but did not stipulate what kind of news is acceptable. The Associated Press reports the Chinese government: “encourages Internet use for education and business, [but] also keeps an extremely tight rein over online content, usually blocking material it deems subversive or pornographic.” Chinese “netizens” must now register their websites and blogs as well as enter their official identity card numbers when visiting Internet cafes.

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EXERCISE

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	China has imposed new rules and regulations on Internet news sites.	T / F
b.	Authorities say the public is not satisfied with the news it receives.	T / F
c.	China will also block educational websites with news content.	T / F
d.	China wants to allow only “healthy and civilized news” online.	T / F
e.	China has the largest number of Internet users in the world.	T / F
f.	Very few people in China use the Web as a source for news.	T / F
g.	The Chinese government encourages Internet use for education.	T / F
h.	Internet café visitors must register their ID numbers when online.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	imposed	enthusiastic
b.	safeguard	Internet users
c.	proactive	helpful
d.	bulging	exceeded
e.	conducive	protect
f.	surpassed	specify
g.	stipulate	inflammatory
h.	rein	introduced
i.	subversive	control
j.	netizens	expanding

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	imposed new	Internet police department
b.	control the content put	kind of news is acceptable
c.	safeguard	by the United States
d.	China’s proactive and bulging	out by news agencies
e.	standardize the management	deems subversive or pornographic
f.	surpassed only	rules and regulations
g.	primary source of news	over online content
h.	did not stipulate what	of information
i.	keeps an extremely tight rein	from around the globe
j.	blocking material it	public interest

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