In a rather rare situation for the people of China, the government is allowing information created by citizens about last Monday's devastating earthquake to flow without much restriction.
According to a report filed by Cara Anna with Associated Press, China is not placing nearly as much restriction on the flow of information as they normally do. This isn't to say that there is an entire free-for-all in effect - seventeen people have been detained by police and forced to write apologies for spreading what was claimed to be false information - but it is certainly more freedom than they are usually allowed.
It isn't just blogs that are carrying the information, but also text messaging and microblogging. In the regions hardest hit by the quake, generators have been brought to special buildings to allow people to recharge their mobile phones in order to facilitate communication among survivors and relatives and so forth, and crews are working to get all cell towers affected by last Monday's earthquake and subsequent aftershocks back up to allow information to flow with as few complications as possible.
Also, in an unprecedented show of openness, government officials held a real-time discussion with Chinese citizens to discuss why so many schools collapsed, killing thousands of children.