Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
By Jessie Pang HONG KONG (Reuters) – A Hong Kong man on Monday pleaded guilty to sedition for wearing a T-shirt with a protest slogan, becoming the first person convicted under the city’s new national security law passed in March. Chu Kai-pong, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of “doing with a seditious intention an act”. Under the new security law, the maximum sentence for the offence has been expanded from two years to seven […]
By Jing Xuan TENG SHANGHAI, Dec 15, 2023 (AFP) – Chinese social media users reported on Friday that they had been warned against posting “pessimistic” views about the economy, in a sign of growing political sensitivity as China struggles to boost growth. China’s economy is battling headwinds on multiple fronts and Beijing’s leadership said this month its recovery was confronting “difficulties and challenges”. Several people told AFP that social media platform Weibo had sent them […]
By Rebecca BAILEY A Chinese journalist who popularised the country’s stalled #MeToo movement and a labour activist were due to face trial Friday, with supporters voicing concerns for their health after two years in detention. Sophia Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing were arrested on 19 September 2021, under the broad charge of “inciting subversion of state power” — but their trial in the southern city of Guangzhou was only announced this week, according to their […]
NEW DELHI, June 13, 2023 (AFP) – India on Tuesday denied claims it had threatened to shut down Twitter inside the country if it did not block accounts critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The world’s biggest democracy petitions Twitter for content removals more than almost any other country, and the platform regularly takes down or blocks content at the request of Indian authorities. Former chief executive Jack Dorsey said Monday that the platform […]
Hong Kong, China | AFP | Hong Kong has banned the screening of an award-winning animated short film over a one-second depiction of the city’s 2014 democracy protests, a film society said Friday, as Beijing maintains its chokehold on free speech in the finance hub. The Ground Up Film Society told AFP that it cancelled a Sunday screening of “Losing Sight of a Longed Place” at their film festival after Hong Kong authorities would not […]
Hong Kong is not becoming a “police state”, the city’s top law enforcement officer said Tuesday, days after his officers stamped out the city’s once-permitted commemorations marking Beijing’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown. The Chinese business hub is preparing for an upcoming leadership change as well as the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from Britain, for which President Xi Jinping is widely expected to visit. Speaking to local outlet HK01 about beefed-up security activity around the event, commissioner Raymond […]
TURIN, Italy (AFP) — Novak Djokovic expressed his shock Monday at the ‘disappearance’ of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, who has not been heard from since accusing a powerful politician of sexual assault. Peng claimed earlier this month that former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli had assaulted her, the first time the #MeToo movement has struck at the top echelons of the ruling Communist Party. Chinese officials have refused to answer questions on the fate […]
WUZHEN, China (AFP) — China’s “Great Firewall” system of online censorship blocks domestic access to nearly a quarter of the foreign news organisations accredited to report in the country, a press watchdog said Tuesday. Beijing bars its citizens from accessing the publicly available websites of 23 percent of 215 international news organisations that have journalists based in China, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) said in a statement. Thirty-one percent of news organisations […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Animated film “Abominable” will not be shown in Malaysia after its distributor Sunday said it could not comply with censors’ demands to cut a controversial scene showing Beijing’s disputed claims in the South China Sea. The decision comes after Vietnam pulled the Universal Pictures movie from theatres days ago and the Philippines’ foreign secretary called for the segment to be excised. “Universal has decided not to make the censor […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Microsoft’s Bing search engine was inaccessible in China on Thursday, with social media users fearing it could be the latest foreign website to be blocked by censors. Attempts to open cn.bing.com has resulted in an error message for users since Wednesday. “We’ve confirmed that Bing is currently inaccessible in China and are engaged to determine next steps,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a brief statement, hours after saying the company was […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Internet giants launched an offensive Monday against far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who is now banned from Apple, Facebook, Spotify and YouTube. The move, described by Jones as a “coordinated communist-style crackdown,” came after months of criticism against Facebook, Twitter and YouTube calling for them to do more to combat disinformation and hate discourse. Jones, whose site InfoWars has accused victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting of […]
SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — Skype has apparently joined the lengthening list of internet communication tools on China’s blacklist, with Apple saying Wednesday it was ordered to clear its download store of apps that violate national laws. Skype is no longer available for download on the China Apple Store or Android sites, with Chinese web-users saying it had been gone for weeks. “We have been notified by the Ministry of Public Security that a number of […]
