Videoblogger Deported from China for Covering Protests

My friend F.X. Leach asked me to post on the deportation of American videoblogger "noneck". Fortunately Leach has already put up a comprehensive post that I'm reprinting in full with permission below. The original post appeared on Tibet Will Be Free.

Many bloggers were very impressed with Students for a Free Tibet's Executive Director Lhadon Tethong's blogging efforts in Beijing last year, and wanted to support our work. They came to Beijing to support the Tibet issue, but also to support Chinese bloggers and free speech.

Now American videoblogger noneck has been deported from China for posting videos of SFT protests in Beijing. Here is one of the videos that the Chinese government found so offensive as to deport him for:

While he wasn't "embedded" with SFT, he was always in the loop if a protest in progress, and since most of our protests were in central areas, it was easy for him to get there quick.

Our relationship with him and other bloggers is essentially the same as our relationship with professional journalists, and in fact, we consider citizen journalists such as noneck, to be just as legitimate and well suited as allies in our "this just happened" online media strategy.

noneck is a supporter of SFT, but also a personal friend of Nathan Dorjee, SFT's Digital Operations Director.

You can watch more of noneck's video blog coverage on Qik and read his Twitter feed for his great microblogging during his time in China.

BlogSchmog has a great write-up of noneck's deportation and what he's been doing while in Beijing.

Matt Browner-Hamlin is a Democratic internet strategist, writer, and consultant. He has worked with Students for a Free Tibet for over eight years, including two years as a full-time staff member. The views expressed are his alone and not the views of any of his clients.

Follow Matt Browner Hamlin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mbrownerhamlin

Comments

[NDNlady]

I respect your efforts on behalf of Tibetan rights, sir, I do. That said, I do not believe the United States can ever be a credible voice for the rights of others until they cease violating the human rights of their own. Federal Indian policy is still based on a racist doctrine virtually unchanged in law since the founding of this country. Despite repeated entreaties from UN human rights bodies like the Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination, the United States still refuses to recognize that human rights apply to indigenous peoples. These failings, enshrined in federal law, prevent native people from protecting their governments, their land and their people. Because our issues are virtually invisible in our own country, the American public remains happily ignorant.

[BusGreg]

Well said! He who lives in a glass house ought not throw rocks! Besides, last time I checked, China was a sovereign Nation and it is their right to determine who is allowed in their country. As a former pilot I have flown many charters to Canada and Mexico. Any time a person enters a foreign nation he or she is subject to THEIR laws. If you don't like that, stay home. That was what I explained to my passengers and we never had any trouble.
We reserve the right to run our country the way we see fit and the same right applies to any other nation. If one doesn't like that either stay home or face the consequences.

[dadw5boys]

Hey, I will be your friend.

Please post the anti- war protest in the USA espically at the White House where thoudans get arrested all the time.

Don't our troops fighting an illegal war deserve as much as Free Tibet Protestors?