Mideast protests a red flag to Chinese censors

It's not unusual for international channels like CNN and the BBC to go dark in China when those with their hand on the switch in some Orwellian master control room hear words like "Tibet," "Falun Gong," or "Tiananmen Square. ...

The depth of official unease over possible dissent was evident when Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi outright denied that police had attacked the press at these "strolling protests" despite video recordings of them doing just that. One reporter was even hospitalized after a beating.

I said all this on CNN but viewers in China never got to hear it. The censors achieve at least one thing: They allow the government to remain in its state of deep denial.

More at Committee to Protect Journalists - Press Freedom Online