Censorship
Television censorship is conducted by State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television of People's Republic of China (PRC) and targets the overseas programs (including those from Hong Kong and Macau), that can be watched in Mainland China. In addition receiving satellite TV signals without permission is against the law in Mainland China.
Foreign and Hong Kong SAR news broadcasts in mainland China such as TVB, Phoenix TV, CNN, BBC World, BBC World Service, CNBC and Bloomberg Television are occasionally censored by being "blacked out" during controversial segments. CNN has reported that their broadcast agreement in China includes an arrangement that their signal must pass through a Chinese-controlled satellite. In this way, Chinese authorities have been able to black out CNN segments at will. CNN has also said that their broadcasts are not widely available in China, but rather only in certain diplomatic compounds, hotels, and apartment blocks.
Blacked out content has included references to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the Dalai Lama, the death of Zhao Ziyang, the 2008 Tibetan unrest, the Chinese milk scandal of 2008 and negative developments about the Beijing Olympics.
During the Summer Olympics in Beijing all Chinese TV stations were ordered to delay live broadcasts by ten seconds, a policy that was designed to give censors time to react in case free-Tibet demonstrators or others staged political protests. In January 2009, during a television report of the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama, the state-run China Central Television abruptly cut away from its coverage of Obama's address when he spoke of how "earlier generations faced down fascism and communism".
Enforcement in television censorship is increasingly difficult and ineffective in the early part of the twenty-first century, partly due to satellite signal hacking systems that can be purchased in most major cities for as low as 2000 ¥ RMB ($285), which access channels and programs on many satellites serving the Asian Pacific region.
Read more about this topic: Television In The People's Republic Of China
Famous quotes containing the word censorship:
“Right now I think censorship is necessary; the things they’re doing and saying in films right now just shouldn’t be allowed. There’s no dignity anymore and I think that’s very important.”
—Mae West (1892–1980)
“The censorship method ... is that of handing the job over to some frail and erring mortal man, and making him omnipotent on the assumption that his official status will make him infallible and omniscient.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“... censorship often boils down to some male judges getting to read a lot of dirty books—with one hand.”
—Robin Morgan (b. 1941)