Sources in the Ministry of Information Industry, which supervises network access in China, have confirmed that the Herald site cannot be traced into the domestic network. But no government agency appears willing or able to shed any light on why. The Foreign Ministry, the Public Security Bureau and the agencies responsible for network access have all denied knowledge of or responsibility for a block on the site. The Herald's sister paper, The Age , has been unreachable via Chinese ISPs for more than a year. Fairfax's F2 site remains unaffected.
China routinely blocks the Web sites of certain overseas news organisations.
The New York Times and The Washington Post are rarely accessible, and the CNN and the BBC sites are also often barred. Human rights sites critical of the Government are also blocked. The Internet poses a problem for China's political leaders, who are in two minds about the free flow of information it makes possible. A number of domestic sites that challenged the Government have been closed this year. The most recent figures indicate there are at least 17million Internet users in China - slightly more than 1per cent of the population.