The OpenNet Initiative (U of Toronto, Berkman Center and U of Cambridge) is releasing a report on Thursday about the sites China prevents its citizens from seeing. From the press advisory about the press conference:

“Internet Filtering in China in 2004-2005” documents the degree to which the Chinese government controls and manipulates the information environment in which its citizens including websites, blogs, email, and online discussion forums. Since ONI last released on filtering in China in 2002, the Chinese government has developed far more sophisticated filtering techniques. Using a distributed testing application run from within China’s trusted volunteers from different locations and network access points, ONI’s report empirical and comparative study of China’s filtering systems. The report also offers legal and regulatory regime that supports and justifies these filtering practices.

These topics are particularly timely given recent efforts by the Chinese government to monitor websites and chat rooms, large-scale arrests of Chinese citizens who post material the government deems offensive or threatening, and the firing of prominent scholars critical of the Central Propaganda Department.

If you happen to be in DC on Thursday, you can mosey on over to Room 285 of the Russell Senate Office Building at 9:30am. If you’d like to get a copy of the report when it comes out, you can send an email to amichel /AT\ cyber.law.harvard.eud. [Technorati tags: china censorship berkman]

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