Foreign Newsprint and Blogging on Mainland China
Last week, The Vancouver Sun published an article featuring a Richmond-based Digital Newspaper company, NewspaperDirect Inc., which has just signed the first deal for foreign newsprint to be printed on Mainland China. Founder Easiprint Co. Ltd. in Beijing will print foreign newspapers for same-day delivery - a historical first for China.
Wency Leung, the writer of this piece, interviewed Robert Scales and Kris Krug, from Bryght, back in May, prior to their first trip to China. Having had met with political and prominent business figures in China, Rob spoke with Wency again last week, to give her a sense of what the blogosphere does in fact look like on the ground, and what his feelings are of the Chinese approach to the media in China.
Here is an excerpt from her article:
Robert Scales, president and CEO of Vancouver-based web development firm Raincity Studios, said he hasn't seen any indication that foreign bloggers and online journalists will be restricted during the Beijing Olympics. The company is aiming to work with Chinese web hosts and other companies in preparation for the 2008 Games. On a trip to China in May, Scales said he posted blogs on his site from Beijing without any difficulty.
"It seems like China is really opening up for a coming-out party for the 2008 Olympics. I think they want to have good representation," he said. He added that Chinese authorities gave no sign they'd crack down on web content. "There's no indication of this yet," he said. But, he noted: "If there is, they're keeping it secret and not making it publicly known."
You can read the full Vancouver Sun article online.
Rob and Kris are heading back to China in September to further their research and establish more business relationships in conjunction with the China Access 2008 project.