Yeeyan.org may change the reporting of international news

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on July 28, 2010 at 10:39 AM

Yeeyan.org is a ground breaking volunteer community based China that translates news from English to Chinese. The name "Yeeyan" means "translate the information." The site has over 150,000 users and translates 50-100 articles a day, mostly for free. With over 60,000 articles translated in total, it appears that Yeeyan is living up to its name.

Due to the strict nature of the censorship laws in China, politics have not been the main focus for Yeeyan (although it appears on the site that the recently leaked "Afghan War Diary" is in the process of being translated), and the Chinese government shut down the website at the end of 2009 for several months on the basis that Yeeyan was posting controversial material. Currently Yeeyan editors must double check what its users are publishing and encourages members to self censor.

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.