July 6, 2004

His Excellency, Mei Ping, Ambassador
The Embassy of the People's Republic of China
515 St.Patrick Street
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada, KIN 5H3

Excellency,

I am writing on behalf of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), a non-profit, non-governmental organization that works to promote and protect press freedom and freedom of expression around the world.

CJFE wishes to express our concern over the Chinese government's new campaign to put short message service (SMS) mobile phone text messages under surveillance.

The campaign, announced on July 2, 2004, would require private companies to install newly developed technology that would monitor SMS transmissions. Officials will also be making daily inspections of SMS providers to ensure compliance.

This new technology not only allows authorities to read these SMS messages, it also automatically notifies the police when certain keywords are detected. The offending text and its author are then entered into a database. SMS providers are required to contact the authorities on a regular basis to have an up-to-date list of banned topics and keywords.

Similar surveillance of the internet by the Chinese government has resulted in widespread censorship and the imprisonment of more than 60 "cyberdissidents" for their comments in emails and on the World Wide Web. SMS was one of the few remaining venues for electronic personal communication and news distribution not under heavy government scrutiny. During the SARS crisis in May 2003, SMS was used to relay information on the spread of that disease in spite of a government-enforced blackout of information on the growing epidemic. However, even without the aid of this new technology, approximately a dozen people were arrested for spreading "false rumours" about SARS through text messages.

CJFE calls on the Chinese government to cease its indiscriminate surveillance of text messages. This increased intrusion into personal communications is a dangerous threat to freedom of expression, for both the media and the general public.

We request your Embassy convey our concerns to the Government of the People's Republic of China.

I look forward to receiving your prompt reply.

Yours truly,

Arnold Amber
President

Case file number: PL-O415