When the SARS virus hit China three years ago, Beijing responded with a massive coverup. In our March/April 2006 issue, Karl Taro Greenfeld explained how two brave journalists and one courageous doctor broke the silence before the virus had a chance to kill thousands more.

You would think that experience would have taught China a thing or two. Apparently not. A Chinese court has just jailed a goose farmer from the eastern province of Jiangsu who blew the whistle on China's bird flu cases. Here we go again.