Reuters site blocked in China

The Reuters website has joined the New York Times and Bloomberg sites as being blocked in China.

Doug Young of Forbes.com writes, “Despite longer-term crackdowns on big names like Bloomberg and the New York Times, Reuters had managed to largely steer clear of China’s censors and its websites have remained largely accessible in China for most of the last 2 years.

“But I couldn’t access any of Reuters sites in Shanghai starting last Thursday, and later reports confirmed the company’s Chinese- and English-language websites have been blocked throughout the country since then. (English article) Before I go any further, I should disclose that I previously worked at Reuters for a decade, and maintain contact with many of my former colleagues 4 years after leaving the company. Reuters Chinese site also is a regular user of my work, though apparently none of that has been viewable in China for the last few days.

“There’s not a lot of detail in the latest reports, which say Reuters confirmed that users in China first experienced difficulty accessing its sites starting on Thursday. Reuters pointed out that access to its sites has been blocked at times in the past, most often when it publishes articles on topics like politics that are considered sensitive by Beijing. No one ever knows how long such blockages will last, since Beijing is highly opaque about its criteria for blocking certain sites.”

Read more here.