The Chinese government took another draconian step aimed at strangling the flow of information between its citizens, with new, tighter regulations to monitor mobile phone text messages.
The authorities in China have been occasionally monitoring text messages for some time. Last year, 12 people were arrested following interception of messages they sent containing warnings about the outbreak of the respiratory disease SARS, which the government was trying to cover up.
This time, the government claims it is targeting pornography and criminals who use text messages to sell bogus goods and steal credit-card numbers. But the Paris-based organisation Reporters Without Borders…
