Chinese bloggers are defying censorship efforts and taking delight in ridiculing the state television station CCTV. Only a few weeks after the Chinese government declared that it plans to expand its overseas TV broadcasting to better inform the world about events in China, CCTV failed to adequately cover a major story literally on its own doorstep.
Main tower undamaged
The complex that was destroyed was located next to the spectacular, gravity-defying CCTV tower designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, which is due to open in October. Fortunately, the tower - which has become the latest showpiece in Beijing - was undamaged.
Embarrassed CCTV officials tried to censor coverage of the fire, but thanks to the millions of Chinese users on the Internet, the story got out anyway. Members of the public armed with camera phones, text messages, and email filled the void. One blogger, Wang Xiaofeng, wrote that "Even though the fire was up to their eyebrows, they were still trying to hide the truth... in this breaking news, the official media was defeated by the citizen media."
Directive
China's propaganda authorities quickly sent out a directive to media demanding no photos, video or in-depth reports, and that they rely only on the version put out by the official Xinhua news agency. But someone quickly published the directive on the Internet, so now tens of millions of Chinese people, and the rest of the world, know that the authorities were trying to restrict coverage.
The website of CCTV International does have a report, including video, of the blaze, and even has a poll on the site asking whether fireworks should be banned. But the domestic website of CCTV doesn't appear to feature anything about the fire on its Home Page.
Xiao Qiang, head of the University of California's China Internet Project, told the AFP news agency that the online response reflected frustration among Chinese people about having to endure CCTV's propaganda-driven agenda.
"Many of the 'critical comments' that the authorities are busy deleting actually reflect a popular antagonistic attitude among netizens toward CCTV."
Damaged repuation
This is the latest in a series of negative stories that have damaged the reputation of CCTV both at home and abroad. Twenty-two academics last month launched an online boycott campaign condemning CCTV's "brainwashing" and failure to report sensitive news such as the contaminated milk scandal that led to six children dying and nearly 300,000 falling ill. Separately, another website called "Anti-CCTV" dedicated to highlighting the broadcaster's mistakes has attracted more than 178,000 visits since April last year.
Meanwhile, Chinese prosecutors are probing the blaze. According to The Procuratorial Daily, the newspaper of the state prosecution and anti-graft agency, officials are investigating "dereliction of duty". Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said "suspects and evidence have been placed under police control". It did not specify who was under investigation or for what offences. The fire swept quickly through the side building in part because of lack of water, the report said. "The hoses of the firetrucks could not reach the rooftop, and there were no water supplies inside the building." CCTV has apologised for staging the unlicensed fireworks display.
(Sources: AFP, Reuters)
Tags: Beijing, blaze, bloggers, CCTV, China, fire, fireworks, Internet