DISQUS

VentureBeat: Twitter joins the Olympics, as a Chinese journalist cries out for help

  • Sam B · 1 year ago
    Who are these incompetent secret policemen who keep letting arrestees use their mobile phones?
  • Chris Morrison · 1 year ago
    I don't know, but the idea of a Chinese version of the Keystone Kops makes me happy.
  • LaoBin · 1 year ago
    Check out ongoing drama at http://twitter.com/iamgadfly. Short summary: mentally imbalanced Mexican-American pastor from Puente, CA rents 2 hotel rooms in Beijing at international hotel chains. He vandalizes the rooms and splatters fake blood around. Records it all and posts it to YouTube. Immediately flees without paying the damage; foreign hotel chains spend thousands on cleaning bill. Now he is hiding in a hole (he says dramatically, "evading authorities") in Beijing for the next 12 days exposed to weather, and tweeting the whole time.

    He says he did it to "attract attention". He plans to turn himself in (if anyone is actually looking for him) in 12 days. If all goes according to his plan, China will release some random political dissidents and ratify some U.N. law. And he will get even more "attention". If God doesn't force the Chinese to release the dissidents, this guy will return to Beijing later and hold more hotel rooms hostage.

    Good times; good times.
  • hmmm · 1 year ago
    Mr. Morison you really should fact check your articles before reposting other people's information. Your accounts of Zhou Shuguang's encounter with authorities are misled by inaccurately researched material posted on the most recent Global Voices story by J. Kennedy where you seem to have single sourced your facts.

    1. "A Chinese journalist nabbed by security forces during the Olympics and forced to go to a village far from the event."

    Zuola was not at the Olympics when he was visited by authorities. He was already at home in Meitanban. Definitely not "forced to go to a village far from the event."

    2. "...driven to a mining town, and placed under house arrest."

    Again he was already in Meitanba. Also he was not officially arrested.

    3. "Zuola — a childless 27 year old — was ordered to meet with police over accusations of having two children, one more than the local limit."

    He was not accused of having two children. The officials were asking him about another person. I think it does a disservice to people like Zola to inaccurately represent facts - especially when a situation is somewhat sensitive already.