Requirements for Websites Related to Earthquake

By Jian Shuo Wang on 2008-05-21 20:49 · News

Since I have previously hosted my little blog at one of the data center in Shanghai, I got an email in my mailbox from the government (Internet branch, News department, Shanghai Municipal Government) about the requirements for websites related to the recent earthquake.

Brief translation (for time being, didn’t fine tune words, and it just reflecting the basic ideas. Refer to the original letter for details).

To every web site in this city:
The Statement Department decides to hold “National Mourn Day” from May 19 to 21 . According the spirit of the instruction of News Office of State Department, the following requirements are announced:
Every web site should propaganda and report State Department’s Announcement promptly, dominantly, and repeatedly; should timely and dominantly report mourning activities of Party Central Committee, State Department and local’s. In parallel with propaganda and report on the Internet, related web site should utilize mobile SMS, MMS, Mobile newspaper, etc methods to report. State Department Announcement should be put at the dominate location on the home page of every web site during National Mourning Day.
Every web site stops 3 days of all kinds of entertainment activities and services. From 0:00 19thto 24:00 21th, every game web site, game channels of every web site must be all closed; every entertainment channel and entertainment kind of video and audio channel web site must be covered by mourning pages; pages under these channels must not be accessible. All entertainment forum of all web sites must all be closed; all music, entertainment video search function of all search engine must be all closed; all entertainment kind of advertisement must be all closed.
Organize mourning on the web well. Atmosphere of all web site must be appropriate to the national morning. All major news site, and major commercial sites should well organize mourning activities joined by netizens, should completely reflect the painful sentiment and patriotic heart of massive netizen.
Effectively do the media management job. All major web site should implement 24 hour on duty, meanwhile must have person-in-charge to lead the team. Every web site should effectively strengthen management of forum, blog etc interactive columns. All comments that are not in align with the main theme of anti-earthquake and disaster relief must be completely deleted. The job implementation situation of every web site should be reported in electronic form to Municipal Government News Office (mailbox: sinonet@shanghai.gov.cn).
Make disciplines strict. For web site who does not do the effective job effectively, should be seriously criticized, and handled. Web sites which do not obey requirements will be all closed, and will be hold responsible afterwards.

Earthquake didn’t change China too much.

19 Comments

Thanks for posting the original email. It takes courage to do that.

— xge · 2008-05-21 22:46

in other words, i'm required to be sad

and this doesn't make me any sadder

did i say i had been really sad already?

ok, i'm sadder now...not in the supposed way

isn't an annually observed 5.12 more appropiate than a forced HTML code with a shortly-noticed 3-day 'national mourning' when more than 50 thousand people were killed on that day?

and CCTV didn't manage to squeeze a drop of tear out of my eye, that's for sure

— mac · 2008-05-21 22:51

Simple Question:

What is the value of mourning if you are force to?

Simple consequence:

how will react someone who loose someone, if he is force to be remind everywhere the tragedie without possibility to stop thinking about that for a while by brainwashing himself in word of warcraft for example.

Just imagine, you feel very bad for loosing your son, and for 3 days, people keep telling you: "look you son is dead! look do not think about something else you son is dead! look it is sad you son is dead!" should be quite hard to support.

— force to mourn · 2008-05-22 00:52

You are smart... you put the Chinese version as an image, hoping you will not be find by the great fire wall of china

— force to mourn · 2008-05-22 00:55

I posted a similar article on my blog Jian Shuo... one thing I noticed (as my wife uses it regularly) , is that although liba.sh is all black and white, the discussion and topics don't seem to be vetted in any way... just seems like 'business as usual' for them.

— AussiePB · 2008-05-22 00:58

I understand that the whole thing is a national disaster and thousands have lost their love ones in such a tragic event.

It is meanfingful for everyone to come together for a FULL DAY to mourn for the dead. However,3 days seem a bit long to me. If all the media keeps playing the same tune, people tend to be desensitized easily. A prolonged mournful period may actually be less effective, causing fewer people to reflect.

— fujianren · 2008-05-22 02:31

Jian shuo, can you gather from webmasters from other cities/provinces see if they got the same announcement? I don't believe it is the order from Wen JB or Hu JT. I believe it is just an order from local gov. It doesn't represent central gov.

— xiaohu · 2008-05-22 03:20

It was sent also out by the govt in Hefei, Anhui province.

— AussiePB · 2008-05-22 04:00

I think this is an order issued by the Government, but the government are also man, and only on behalf of some people. As Wangshi(CEO of Vanke) does not on behalf of all Vanke employees , so,i think it is not that earthquake didn't change China too much, it is that the earthquake didn't change the government too much. I think, to some extent, people change faster than the government.

— derek · 2008-05-22 13:22

In addition, to some extent, I agree with your point of view。

— derek · 2008-05-22 13:25

Jian shuo, maybe the earthquake didn't change some local government officer too much, but it did changed most of our people or country in my view.

The massive, all-out relief operations, the quick, huge donations，the relative transparent media coverage and many many self-giving people got me convinced: our country will become better in the future.

— gengmao · 2008-05-22 13:29

i believe it's not the earthquake which changed people. it's that people have changed a lot and we didn't realise until now.

— siegfried · 2008-05-22 13:58

I hope that all the people will live a happy life.

— phtreeindreams · 2008-05-22 15:02

"Jian shuo, maybe the earthquake didn't change some local government officer too much, but it did changed most of our people or country in my view.

The massive, all-out relief operations, the quick, huge donations，the relative transparent media coverage and many many self-giving people got me convinced: our country will become better in the future."

--Yes, I greatly agree with these words. Best wishes for people in Sichuan.

— niuhuifei · 2008-05-22 21:33

I hope china become more and more strong and hormonious.

— zhouchangshou · 2008-05-22 21:39

Interesting to see the Dalai Lama's comments about his perception of change in China...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7413388.stm

— RWM · 2008-05-22 23:00

Do people know that Dalai's tour of Europe also resulted in monks and nuns (from another sect) to protest against him?

http://www.westernshugdensociety.org/en/the-world-is-listening

"Almost 400 people gathered in the Ruhr district town of Bochum to protest against the Dalai Lama's continued religious discrimination against Shugden practitioners, and his abuse of human rights.

It was a truly international demonstration with protesters coming from Germany, Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, USA, Canada, and even Australia."

Ironical, isn't it? There are always 2 sides to a coin....

— fujianren · 2008-05-22 23:41

I liked the content on this site. Would like to visit again.

— Shirin Jindal · 2008-09-08 16:27

The visit was useful. Content was really very informative. From www.rakhiworldwide.com.

— Sudipta Pal · 2010-06-30 21:04