Journalism.co.uk reports that China shut down the blog of Wang Yi shortly after he was nominated for a BOBs award, or Best of the Blogs award. Yi's blog, called Wang Yi's Microphone, was nominated for an award in the Reporters Without Borders category.
Mr Yi, who is a teacher at Chengdu university, has recently posted on controversial subjects such as a campaign by peasants in Guangdong province to remove a village chief they believed to be corrupt. His blog was closed down on the orders of China's Internet surveillance bureau.
Press freedom organisation Reporters without Borders has condemned the closure in a press release. "We call for the immediate reopening of this blog and we point out that the Chinese constitution is supposed to guarantee free expression," it said.
"In a country where self-censorship reigns, we should salute the courage of the few bloggers like Wang who dare to publicly protest against government bans."
Here is the BOBs listing and description for Wang Yi's blog:
Wangyi, an anti-government Chinese intellectual, currently uses the blog as his microphone to broadcast the dissidence and fight for the independence of justice. The blog is currently not accessible. It's possible to get around this problem by reading search engines' cached versions. Search for Wang Yi's Microphone in Chinese.
