Supression In An Electronic Age

There was a day when a brutal, repressive regime would deal with an uprising by sending in its thugs, beat down an upraising and count on an anything-but-free media to keep it on the hush-hush. No more. Says the Telegraph:

China's censors have tried to stem the flow of information from Tibet reaching the outside world and also block foreign news from their own citizens.

The government blocked the YouTube video sharing site within China, to prevent viewers seeing images of the protests and the army's brutal response. Any internet search for a website containing references to Tibet had already been censored.

A Tibetan journalist covering his homeland from neighbouring Nepal, who asked to be identified as Lhuboom, said: "At this stage I think it's really difficult in Lhasa to use the internet at all."

Meanwhile:

Land line telephone and mobile phone services have also been disrupted by the authorities, while there are widespread fears of phone-tapping for those still able to make calls.

So China has tightened the noose -- domestically, at least. The country must be so frustrated that it can't do the same around the world. Frustrated, or, in the words of Lhadon at Tibet Wide Open,

They are scared. They are so scared.

But there's another way to look at this: China may very well be blacking out Tibet in preparation of an armed suppression of the current demonstrations. The people's leaders Communist dictators in Beijing believe that if they can keep home-shot video off the internet, they will be able to pull off the Olympics without the harsh light of an outraged world spoiling the show.

Just maybe Bush should be rethinking this.