(no subject)
Commenting on China's censorship can land a foreigner in a world of trouble, so thus far, I haven't said much about it; however, it's all too apparent.
For instance, I like to watch the English-language news from Hong Kong on Pearl TV. Unlike the news from CCTV-9 that is also in English, Pearl TV's news program has a more regional perspective and features stories from the area I'm in that I can actually understand. While I was watching the news tonight, however, I was surprised at myself that I was stunned by the flagrant use of censorship in the mainland broadcast of the news program.
The news is in English, so I figured the Mainland government wouldn't even bother to censor it, but tonight I was clearly mistaken. The news talked about a topic I had read about on the BBC earlier this week: China's execution of three Japanese citizens for drug smuggling. While it isn't a secret that China has very harsh penalties for the distribution, trafficking, and use of illicit drugs, what is a touchy subject is the number of executions it carries out, mainly the ones it doesn't officially declare. When the news was talking about this subject, the story was abruptly (and i mean, mid-sentence) covered up by an advert warning people about the dangers of Avian (Bird) flu.
What in the world?
The advert was well time, also cutting off mid-way in time for the next piece on the newscast to begin. I don't really know what could've been said about the executions that would've been so controversial, although there must have been some sort of criticism of the government that the Mainland side thought would be too damaging. It could also very well be true the Hong Kong side believed that self-censorship was the safest route to pursue. In any case, the blatant censorship of the news program in this way, for some reason, is more surprising to me than the more integrated forms of censorship that exists in Mainland China.
What some of you may or not know, my internet access is drastically different than it is in America. For example, websites like Youtube, Facebook, Blogspot, Myspace, and Twitter are all blocked. Pornography is also blocked, and possession of it in any form is illegal (or so I hear from friends...it's not like I'm watching that mess anyway! Get your minds out of the gutter!). Images that one can search for on Google that I use to make my lesson plans, for example, are also blocked. Beyond that, the Chinese versions of websites that we use daily in the states like Wikipedia, BBC, and other western sources of information are prohibited.
What does this mean for ordinary Chinese people? Well, truth be told, much of what's blocked has a Chinese-language counterpart, so while the Google has left China, websites like Baidu (a Chinese search engine) still exists, and the same goes for websites like Youku and Tudou standing in the place of Youtube, even though on both websites the content is strictly moderated by the people who run the government and, consequently, the government bureaus that ensure the websites run in accordance with the law. When people use the Internet for day-to-day things like seeing funny videos, watching movies, listening to music, or writing emails, few notice that certain content is blocked. On the other hand, if intellectual people use the Internet to search for opinionated content about certain events in Chinese history, or seek to post or create content that is controversial, the screen tells them
ERROR
The requested URL could not be retrieved
as if there is a problem with the website they're searching when really it is something the government doesn't want them to see.
Ultimately, my life here is inconvenienced, but it's only hindered slightly. Luckily for me, being able to speak English allows me a greater access to information than I would have if I were Chinese. Yet at the end of the day, it is not surprising that my political ideas are different from those around me when I've been exposed to multiple points of view about certain issues while Chinese people have been fed the same bits of information repeatedly from the only sources they can access (namely, textbooks, Internet, and the books available in libraries). While I'm unsure as to whether or not access to information to could as a fundamental human right (like education, clean water, the right to marry, right to choose leadership, etc), I do understand that being prevented from being able to do or know something is, frankly speaking, the pits. I'm not going as far to use my tentative position as a guest in this country to champion a freer Internet, although I will say: seamless editing during overseas newscasts would at least not insult my intelligence as much as the stunt that was pulled tonight.
For instance, I like to watch the English-language news from Hong Kong on Pearl TV. Unlike the news from CCTV-9 that is also in English, Pearl TV's news program has a more regional perspective and features stories from the area I'm in that I can actually understand. While I was watching the news tonight, however, I was surprised at myself that I was stunned by the flagrant use of censorship in the mainland broadcast of the news program.
The news is in English, so I figured the Mainland government wouldn't even bother to censor it, but tonight I was clearly mistaken. The news talked about a topic I had read about on the BBC earlier this week: China's execution of three Japanese citizens for drug smuggling. While it isn't a secret that China has very harsh penalties for the distribution, trafficking, and use of illicit drugs, what is a touchy subject is the number of executions it carries out, mainly the ones it doesn't officially declare. When the news was talking about this subject, the story was abruptly (and i mean, mid-sentence) covered up by an advert warning people about the dangers of Avian (Bird) flu.
What in the world?
The advert was well time, also cutting off mid-way in time for the next piece on the newscast to begin. I don't really know what could've been said about the executions that would've been so controversial, although there must have been some sort of criticism of the government that the Mainland side thought would be too damaging. It could also very well be true the Hong Kong side believed that self-censorship was the safest route to pursue. In any case, the blatant censorship of the news program in this way, for some reason, is more surprising to me than the more integrated forms of censorship that exists in Mainland China.
What some of you may or not know, my internet access is drastically different than it is in America. For example, websites like Youtube, Facebook, Blogspot, Myspace, and Twitter are all blocked. Pornography is also blocked, and possession of it in any form is illegal (or so I hear from friends...it's not like I'm watching that mess anyway! Get your minds out of the gutter!). Images that one can search for on Google that I use to make my lesson plans, for example, are also blocked. Beyond that, the Chinese versions of websites that we use daily in the states like Wikipedia, BBC, and other western sources of information are prohibited.
What does this mean for ordinary Chinese people? Well, truth be told, much of what's blocked has a Chinese-language counterpart, so while the Google has left China, websites like Baidu (a Chinese search engine) still exists, and the same goes for websites like Youku and Tudou standing in the place of Youtube, even though on both websites the content is strictly moderated by the people who run the government and, consequently, the government bureaus that ensure the websites run in accordance with the law. When people use the Internet for day-to-day things like seeing funny videos, watching movies, listening to music, or writing emails, few notice that certain content is blocked. On the other hand, if intellectual people use the Internet to search for opinionated content about certain events in Chinese history, or seek to post or create content that is controversial, the screen tells them
ERROR
The requested URL could not be retrieved
as if there is a problem with the website they're searching when really it is something the government doesn't want them to see.
Ultimately, my life here is inconvenienced, but it's only hindered slightly. Luckily for me, being able to speak English allows me a greater access to information than I would have if I were Chinese. Yet at the end of the day, it is not surprising that my political ideas are different from those around me when I've been exposed to multiple points of view about certain issues while Chinese people have been fed the same bits of information repeatedly from the only sources they can access (namely, textbooks, Internet, and the books available in libraries). While I'm unsure as to whether or not access to information to could as a fundamental human right (like education, clean water, the right to marry, right to choose leadership, etc), I do understand that being prevented from being able to do or know something is, frankly speaking, the pits. I'm not going as far to use my tentative position as a guest in this country to champion a freer Internet, although I will say: seamless editing during overseas newscasts would at least not insult my intelligence as much as the stunt that was pulled tonight.