Remember

I'm not sure if anyone of my readers remember what should've been commemorated last month. I wrote a post just the day after the even't date but somehow the blog refused to accept it (no conspiration though, just net problems) so I had to wait and posponed the posting ... until today.

The date is June the 4th. Year is 1989. By some twist of fate, reporters from most media networks are in Beijing to cover the visit of communist leader Mikhail Gorbachev, which took place the month before. Yet some of them feel that something big is going on.

What started as student protests in the month of April (protests regarding the resignation of Secretary General Hu Yaobang, who had been forced to write a shameful letter which was followed by his death following a heart attack same month) turned in May in a full scale riot in Beijing, rioting minimized by the regime in Beijing.

But in May the number of protestors that marched in Tiananmen Square was of over 100 thousands and their demands now included direct dialogue and a free media.
On the 20th of the same month martial law is declared, yet the army's marched is delayed by even more protestors, while the hunger strike continued. As the 38th Army stationed in Beijing joined the protests, the 27th and 28th armies began to enter the city, facing many blocades built by local residents.
The beginning of June saw the crackdown of the protests with the two armies affectively assaulting the square.
The day of the 4th hosted the events that were covered live by many television stations around the world and featured the famous video of the unknown rebel, one man who single-handed barred a column of tanks from entering the square and thus buying time for those fleeing the square to escape with their lives. Later, Times Magazine voted him one of the most influential people of the 20th century.
The finding ended but leaving a big question regarding the victims as before the battle ended, the chinese state managed to cut all satellite links of those broadcasting and supress cameras placed at vantage points around the square.
The State claimed 300 dead, while CIA sourced pushed the numbers up to 800 and the Chinese Red Cross which spent the following weeks with a body count claimed 2600 bodies before they were orderer away from the investigation.
The body count was later enlarged by a number of summary trials followed by execution.

While the main outcome of the riot was the image of the obtuse and vengeful communist system that the PRC has today, there's little else that changed. The supression of information regarding Tiananmen led to a generation gap where the new citizens of China grow without little to no information about this and thus the struggle for freedom of speech in China hangs with the few dissidents that still carry on.
Yet the memory of this grusome chapter in the fight for media freedom in China was delivered a monstruous blow by media giants Microsoft, Yahoo and Google who agreed to participate in the censorship imposed on the chinese people.
But the world doesn't forget.