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China The Media

BBC World News Barred From Airing in China (reuters.com) 156

British television channel BBC World News has been barred from airing in China, the National Radio and Television Administration said, a week after Britain's media regulator revoked Chinese state television's broadcast licence. From a report: In a statement issued on the stroke of the Lunar New Year, the administration said an investigation found BBC World News' China-related reports had "seriously violated" regulations, including that news should be "truthful and fair," had harmed China's national interests and undermined national unity.
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BBC World News Barred From Airing in China

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  • and will apple force remove the app from i phones there?

  • by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @01:35PM (#61052154) Journal
    including that news should be "truthful and fair," had harmed China's national interests and undermined national unity.

    If the BBC is reporting truthfully and fairly, then it will harm China's national interests and undermine national unity. Reporting on the genocide of Uygurs, the systemic abuse of human rights, control of the media, and of course not being able to talk about the massacre in Tiananmen Square is the truth.
    • Turns out you can have it both ways. Like calling your news fair and balanced and then being a highly partisan cheerleader for one political party.
    • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @02:13PM (#61052336)
      It has nothing to do with whether the BBC is truthful or not. It's just retaliation for Britain's media regulators essentially banning the Chinese news agencies. The real issue and problem here is that such regulators exist at all. Perhaps you cheered when the Chinese propaganda was removed and prohibited from being spread, but here's the very same system being used to suppress the truth.

      Who cares if the Chinese news agencies want to spread lies or publish misleading or even outright false news? Ultimately lies cannot stand up to reality and spouting them only damages the credibility of those who spread them. Thinking you can somehow create an apparatus that will only suppress lies is foolhardy at best, but only creates a powerful tool which can also be turned against the truth just as easily.
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        Right wish I had mod points for you. I have been saying this since 2016 when we started getting the "OMG Russian Internet trolls" narrative.

        If a free society is so endangered by some people spewing nonsense; the answer can't be stop the nonsense because than you don't have a free society any more. Maybe a better question to be asking is why don't we have stronger sense of shared values and cultural identity that some challenging ideas from outsiders don't send us into convulsions.

        • The only danger I see to this, and this is playing out in the US, that news devolves into sides and teams. So you get very few sources even trying to maintain neutrality. Neutrality is impossible, but it should be attempted.
          CNN is a prime example. It used to be a pretty stable news reporting service, one I'd listen to while travelling for American news. That is, until Trump called them dummies and they decided to go full partisan. Then it became another shill.
          Ironically, the BBC ( which admitedly does have

        • by sound+vision ( 884283 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @04:47PM (#61053174) Journal

          What's that narrative to you? Because we have in evidence: Troll farms and meme factories exist. They produce exploits for unpatchable psychological vulnerabilities; lies that do stand up to reality. Do you think the ex-KGBs in charge of Russia aren't taking advantage of the fact that they can publish in American (social) media? That they can distribute propaganda directly to Americans while they're in line at the grocery store, or taking a shit? They could only dream of that kind of power during Cold War I.

          The investment needed is minuscule, the risks for them are 0, and once you seed this stuff in the wild, the "useful idiots" will finish the distribution for you. By the time Grandma reads it on Facebook, it has her sister's or her pastor's name next to it. Instant grassroots legitimacy.

          • No, that's exactly what they did during the Cold War. Something like 90% of the KGB's resources went to that exact sort of subversion. The really disturbing thing is that it worked. The shit they came up with is being repeated today. Lines they wrote to divide us can be heard every day from the "woke" Left and hosts on CNN.

            You can hop on YouTube and watch former KGB operative Yuri Bezmenov describe what they had been doing. It is profoundly disturbing to hear him talk about KGB agitprop that is toda

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by i286NiNJA ( 2558547 )

          The people influenced by Russian propaganda aren't sitting there scratching their heads, thinking critically, to find the truth. They're looking for someone saying thing things they want to believe or even giving them something to believe without having to do the work.

          > stronger sense of shared values and cultural identity

          People have been at work pumping our society full of little memes, factoids, and sayings to manipulate our culture and attitudes. Furthermore they've taken our base values, knowing t

        • Maybe a better question to be asking is why don't we have stronger sense of shared values and cultural identity that some challenging ideas from outsiders don't send us into convulsions.

          If we are talking about the US then they only way to get that shared value and identity is to break the country up into smaller countries. To pick an obvious example, culturally California does not have much in common with Alabama.

          • Maybe a better question to be asking is why don't we have stronger sense of shared values and cultural identity that some challenging ideas from outsiders don't send us into convulsions.

            If we are talking about the US then they only way to get that shared value and identity is to break the country up into smaller countries. To pick an obvious example, culturally California does not have much in common with Alabama.

            Sure it does, both states full of Americans, families, mother , father sons, daughters neighbors. People drive cars , they watch TV, they enjoy time with frineds and family. MUCH more in common than different.

            The problem with the misinformation is that it often times appears to come from a position of authority, or in some cases unfortunately it actually does come from a position of authority.

            But the biggest problem of all? 60% of the American population has an IQ of under 110. Critical thinking begins to

        • If a free society is so endangered by some people spewing nonsense; the answer can't be stop the nonsense because than you don't have a free society any more.
          We've seen this movie before, we know how it ends.

          The year is 1920, and some people with the National Socialist German Worker's Party are spewing nonsense, where do you draw the line?

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]

          If that's what a free society looks like when good people do nothing. They weren't wrong because they lost the war, they were just wrong, and we should have had the guts to tell them that.

      • Lies can stand for a very long time. All that is needed is a sufficient amount of believers in the lie. The internet will provide all the unchecked facts and unsound logic needed to justify literally any belief. In a person who lacks factual information, or the ability to discern factual from false information, a lie can live forever.
        • Frictions escalating. British MPs debating if They should boycott Olympics. Unfortunately other countries did not follow and some made statements will go to Olympics trying to separate the games from politics.
      • They're also likely a bit peeved about the support offered to Hong Kong residents. Their position was "keep your heads down, make money for your political masters, and don't cause trouble 'cos you've nowhere else to go."

        Well, the British Government has just pulled that rug from under them. Almost half the population of Hong Kong are Overseas British Nationals, now eligible to relocate to the UK should they wish. The CCP are livid.
        If HM Govt wants to twist the knife a bit, they could open the offer to depe

        • Well, the British Government has just pulled that rug from under them. Almost half the population of Hong Kong are Overseas British Nationals, now eligible to relocate to the UK should they wish. The CCP are livid.

          What's to prevent the CCP from unilaterally changing the laws and slamming the door shut on the "Overseas British Nationals" and not allowing them to leave? What's HM's government going to do; go to war with China? China would take GREAT DELIGHT in turning GB into a smoking pile of radioactive ruin.

          • by sfcat ( 872532 )

            Well, the British Government has just pulled that rug from under them. Almost half the population of Hong Kong are Overseas British Nationals, now eligible to relocate to the UK should they wish. The CCP are livid.

            What's to prevent the CCP from unilaterally changing the laws and slamming the door shut on the "Overseas British Nationals" and not allowing them to leave? What's HM's government going to do; go to war with China? China would take GREAT DELIGHT in turning GB into a smoking pile of radioactive ruin.

            The GB has ICBMs and Hydrogen weapons. So the answer to your question is MAD. Where have you been the last 75 years?

      • Ultimately lies cannot stand up to reality and spouting them only damages the credibility of those who spread them.

        That only works when people are interested in reality. Take a look around, there doesn't seem to be much interest in reality these days.

      • >Who cares if the Chinese news agencies want to spread lies or publish misleading or even outright false news? Ultimately lies cannot stand up to reality and spouting them only damages the credibility of those who spread them

        Fox news/facebook didn't work out that way in the US and if this was true then people inside of China wouldn't be full of CCP propaganda.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        In the case of the Chinese news channel in the UK it wasn't the content that was the issue, it was the ownership. TV channels have to clearly state who owns them to broadcast in the UK, and the Chinese news channel didn't do that.

        We allow all kinds of bullshit on TV here. We have Russia Today, for example. There are theoretically standards for truthfulness but they are apparently so easily avoided that RT is free to broadcast all sorts of rubbish.

        • Banning the Chinese from the UK on some legal technicality was idiocy of the highest order. Everybody knows that everything Chinese is connected to the Communist Party, regardless of what they put on the form.

          But we gave them a perfect excuse to ban BBC in China. That is far, far important. A fairly reliable source of truth in China. Gone!

      • > Who cares if the Chinese news agencies want to spread lies or publish misleading or even outright false news?

        Because it makes a mockery of Journalism. THE guiding principle of Ethical Journalism is to tell the truth without bias. Obviously that is an ideal but it is one we should never stop pursuing it. The moment were we decide Truth isn't important because we are more interested in controlling the narrative, money, etc. then what the fuck is the point of even reporting it if you are just going to

      • by jabuzz ( 182671 )

        You see in the UK, television programs *MUST* be balanced and truthful. If you are not you will get into trouble, and repeated offences will see you loose your license.

        So for example you will never have the likes of Fox news spouting lies about voter fraud when there is no evidence in the UK. You also will not get the likes of US style talk radio in the UK either as the same rules apply.

        It would be nice if the same rules applied to the newspapers too frankly.

      • > Ultimately lies cannot stand up to reality

        This is demonstrably false.

    • by hawk ( 1151 )

      Sure you can.

      Just look up the words in your commie to English dictionary, and it all makes perfect sense.

      You just need to brush up on your newspeak . . .

      hawk

    • I have yet to see compelling evidence for the sudden war drums of concern for the Uygurs. Since when does western media care about Muslim genocide? Usually it's when they want to war, coup or insurrection. I could be wrong, but there is a long history here...
    • The BBC should take this as a badge of honour. Who else is going to stand up to China?
  • by Dutch Gun ( 899105 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @01:59PM (#61052272)

    I consider this the news-organization equivalent of receiving a Purple Heart.

    "had harmed China's national interests and undermined national unity" probably means they told an uncomfortable truth and made the party look bad. Literally anything the party doesn't like "undermines national unity". "truthful and fair" means Truth As Told By The Party.

    They're not fooling anyone but nationalistic zealots.

    • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      Fooling - no but successful depriving people of the information they need to make their own intelligent informed decisions - probably.

      Its one thing to know you can't trust the propaganda you are being fed; but that knowledge is only useful if you have access to multiple alternative sources of information so you can perhaps sort out what fact, what is outright fiction, and what is spin.

    • If that's only 50% of the population, that's still 1.5 BILLION people.

  • by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @02:09PM (#61052322)

    truth banned in China. When will the Chinese learn? The soviets did, they killed millions of people by throwing them into prisons under the guise of it helping 'the state'. They actually had quotas to throw people in prison and they would straight up throw in innocent people. I'd imagine China isn't that bad right now, but it's going to hurt them when people can't even throw objections or criticism at their own imperfect government. They already had issues with government and problems, the coronavirus got out of control because no one dared to tell the government that there was a virus of fear of looking bad.

    What is the point if the only free person in China right now is the president?

    • ... people can't even throw objections or criticism ...

      I've seen China news: The government is always correct and there is never a dissenting opinion. The faults and crimes of the Chinese government are never admitted and all the people on television are near-white. It's a very clear demonstration of controlling thought and ethnicity.

      ... no one dared to tell the government ...

      All governments decide the 'truth', many are better at 'enforcing' it than the US. That's a positive when there's a judgemental and free (from harassment and oppression) press, a negative otherwise.

  • by ve3oat ( 884827 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @02:20PM (#61052372) Homepage
    If the BBC service is "banned from airing" in China, the BBC should just go back to broadcasting to China on shortwave radio. Of course the Chinese government will try to jam the broadcasts from being heard in major cities, but they can't jam reception over the whole country, or even all of all cities. Some radio signal always gets through, depending on distance, time of day, radio frequency, and ionospheric propagation conditions at the time.

    Shortwave radio is not like the Internet.
  • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @02:32PM (#61052430)

    I wouldn't necessarily say that, as least compared with other news source. They have their agenda, however Listening to BBC about news that is Happening In America is much more refreshing.
    They are not tied to Democrats vs Republican and their ideology based on each others big supporters, which often will not really align well with the actual proposed ideology.
    Much like how American News is treating Brexit, we are emotionally separated from it, so we are not going crazy putting words into peoples thought.
    UK Voted to Exit the EU.
    Exiting the EU was a big deal, as they are decades worth of trade, military, cross country projects, that need to be negotiated. So it was delayed a few time, and negotiation with the EU was difficult because the EU didn't want the UK to leave, and UK wanted to leave because it wanted to have full control.

    For the most part our view on Prime Minister Johnson is fairly neutral, except for the fact that he is very much like Trump, which our own political biases, may automatically like or dislike him for that connection.

    The BBC news breaks down American News in a similar way, Trump said this or that, without the twist of making sound like he is being completely evil, as well covering the rival argument without making them seem so out of touch. They may have a bias, but it is less emotional, so they are able to do the journalism much more fairly, because it doesn't concern them as much.

    Also BBC tends to give news that will affect the UK more, where this stuff is often not shown on US channels, unless it is a really big deal.

    • I think my favorite comment that I heard from the BBC regarding Trump happened shortly after the Capitol riots when an anchor said, "President Trump, who has access to launch nuclear weapons, has been banned from Facebook for posting irresponsibly."

      Really though, calling Trump evil is an insult to evil.

  • Restore BBC World Service on shortwaves to what it used to be during cold war. We are back again to that, internet and satellites can be stopped and their users easily tracked, shortwaves are safer for the listener and cannot be completely jammed (if not by natural sources [arrl.org]).
    • I like what you are saying but I wonder how many short wave receivers are in the PRC now? And good luck importing one if this starts up...
    • Yeah, but "no one" but westerners give a shit about the BBC in China. The BBC is a joke to Chinese people and is largely totally ignored. They don't consider it worth having in the first place. Well, I mean the news, of course. The drama and nature documentaries are top notch but the news is mostly considered worthless, in my experience.

    • Man, I had a shortwave as a kid, and thought it was the most amazing thing to be getting all these broadcasts from around the world.
      Had a real sense of discovery.

      I was going to say this would be a step too far for a news network to get involved in, but there's some plausable deniability built right in as it's not necessarily a targetted broadcast.

  • "truthful and fair," had harmed China's national interests and undermined national unity.

    So if they tell the truth, it's illegal because they're undermining national unity. But if they repeat the Party line, that's neither truthful nor fair. Sounds like a set of rules designed to be invoked at the convenience of the rulers, not something that can actually be obeyed.

  • No one is more reliably left-wing than the BBC. Last week BBC commentators compared the UK and Chinese governments, and they favored China. I don't understand what has happened to cause them to be banned. Maybe someone made a joke about Xi?

  • .. did on the Staged Syrian Chemical Weapons attacks that they were later caught out on?

    We're pretty much screwed for 'Truth in News' in any and all of the big players in media.

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