No doubt many of us on HH have been paying attention to the Egypt news. But what caught my eyes recently is a slew of news reports accusing China of censoring the Egypt news (Time, WSJ, and Wired).
However, when I (and other bilingual readers) searched for news on Egypt in China – we discover it is not censored. Baidu, Tudou, Sina, CCTV all are carrying this story. Here’re some netter comments:
[Time] Jim: What rubbish. I live and work in China – am from America – and read about this every day ! The continued demonization of China is pathetic but worse filled with hyperbole and lies like this posting by a supplosedly legitimate news source. What crap.
[WSJ] Lei Chen: Ugh, I just saw Egypt protests being reported on Chinese TV (Shanghai DongFang TV, which broadcasts nationally in China) at noon, Beijing time, 1/31/2011. It was in two segments, one reporting about arranged flights for Chinese nationals out of Egypt, and second segment covered the actual protest (Tahrir square, Mohamed ElBaradei, tanks and aircraft, Mubarak meeting, etc…) The reporting is not anything unlike what you would see on BBC or CNN.[Wired] omeiemo: Do you really understand chinese, if donot, please go to learn it first and then google chinese website about “埃及”, chinese word for egypt, we have lots day reports about event in egypt. what we concern is just about the stability in that region, we also have business man or students in egypt, their safety is we really worry about, nothing more. why should chinese people feel nerves like some american people?
Below are search results on Baidu.com on “埃及” on February 2, 2011 with many results to news regarding the ongoing Egypt riot.
The bigger question is why does the Western media like TIME and WSJ pull silly stunts such as this? The answer is simple, actually. There is an on-going narrative in the West that the Chinese government is bad and fearful of “democracy.” There is an on-going truth about the general Western audience; they are too ignorant and incompetent to understand anything in the Chinese language. Propagating this silly narrative makes their readership feel “good” about themselves thinking they don’t live under such a “crazy” society.
Hence I have decided to provide the Baidu.com search results above, because the ignorant requires spoon-feeding.
And, damn, the misfortunes of the Egyptians get turned into a stab against the Chinese. Now, that’s skillful propaganda.
Charles Liu says
Here’s the Baidu search results put thru Google Translator:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baidu.com%2Fs%3Fbs%3Degypt%26f%3D8%26wd%3D%25B0%25A3%25BC%25B0%26n%3D2
So old school reporters may not be able to combine search engine and translation service, but what about new media types like Wired? What’s their excuse for not fact checking?
Once again, this story is twist of fact, half truth sensationalized into an official narrative. Since when does “China” or the Chinese government have direct control over private media company’s moderation policy on a daily basis?
Sina and Tencent was the only two companies singled out originally, then the story got blown out of proportion.
Something probably happened for a short while (flawed alghrithm detecting search term frequency, wrong mouse click by moderator) but filtering Egypt is gone at these two company, and likely had nothing to do with the Chinese government.
YinYang says
If we look at censorship on one end as having the potential to wipe out ideas, then on the other extreme of continuous stupid narratives about our world is in itself a type of censorship too. Rational views and ideas about the world are going to be blocked by these narratives.
America and the West actually need these kind of junk from the likes of WSJ and TIME censored.
J says
To be fair there is some level of information control concerning the Egyptian riot, at least on the Internet; for example most of the news has to be from Xinhua only and comments are mostly closed (eg here: http://news.163.com/11/0202/11/6RSQ3VA50001121M.html ). I personally think the government over-reacted to this; even if all the information is open most Chinese wouldn’t care too much of what is going on there, or linking the situation in China with that in Egypt or the whole of Middle East.
But what makes me feel really good and secure about my own country (and its government) is the help they offered to the stranded tourists there. In total 8 planes were sent and over 1,800 Chinese citizens, including some from Taiwan, have all been safely taken back home in the past 4 days. And this happens to be in the period of Chinese New Year as well, when domestic flights are all full and empty planes difficult to allocate. In the mean time the BBC news in London reports that the first plane has just been sent from London to take back the British citizens stranded there. Mr Cameron should talk less about what Mubarak should do to its angry citizens, and think more about how to help his own citizens first.
Charles Liu says
J, I’d be ecstatic if our media were more fair and reported “some level of information control”. Look how boring, uninspiring “some level of media control” sounds, compared to the over-simplified, emotional narrative that Egypt news is censored.
Doesn’t this pattern of China reporting by our media also demonstrate some level of information control? Try to find a media outlet that botherd to develop this story, after their readership pointed out the inaccuracy.
r v says
Right on, Charles,
Information control includes information pollution.
Let’s put it this way.
Fact checking and censorship are necessary for information quality control.
Information pollution, that’s just poisoning the well that everyone drinks from.
YinYang says
People are linking to this post right now. Here, at reddit.com, some discussions have started. I thought it was rather funny, actually. It’s like we have two universes.
jxie says
The meme of China’s censorship (which does exist) has blocked the search of keyword “Egypt”, can be traced back to this AP news blurb quote by thestar.com without a journalist’s name: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/930284–china-blocks-egypt-on-microblogging-service. I have servers in & out of China, and have not been able to repeat what’s claimed by it.
Sina is a private site, so its admins are entitled to do whatever they please on their site, though it seems like they haven’t done what was described. A more “devastating” news piece is that Sina’s PR spokeswoman Ma Taotao (马桃桃) admitted that the blocking of search of keyword “Egypt”, which can’t be independently verified, was not Sina’s own decision but rather ‘following the “relevant Chinese laws and regulations.”’ The origin of that meme was http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/China-Blocks-Some-Internet-Reports-on-Egypt-Protests-114925514.html. BTW, this is also piped to AP as well. The new piece also has its Chinese version.
Here is an interesting finding: search for “Sina ‘Ma Taotao’ -egypt “, or “新浪 公关 马桃桃 -埃及” yield no result showing Ma Taotao working for Sina even exists, other than corroborating to the story told by Stephanie Ho working for VOA.
r v says
I’m putting up my own Great Firewall of WTFC (Who The F* Cares) on Western Media.
From now on, I’m going to be like a typical American, I will only get my news from my own favorite channels.
jxie says
Upon more searching this is getting even better. There is actually a PR spokesman working for Sina named “Mao Taotao” (毛涛涛). If you search by “‘mao taotao’ +egypt” in English or Chinese, it yields nothing — you will need to do an advanced search with a timeframe limit in Chinese search.
So let me get this straight. Stephanie Ho working for VOA has this exclusive knowledge from Mr. Mao about why Sina blocked the search of keyword “Egypt” (which it’s not verifiable by others), yet she spelled his surname wrong, twice.
Folks, another case of creative journalism.
YinYang says
Creative propaganda.
Dan says
Figures, I knew the “censoring Egypt” headlines sounded funny when I first read them. Journalists not doing their homework? Surprise.
r v says
Even funnier headline: “Violence in Egypt against Journalists Makes Accurate Reporting Difficult.”
Seemed pretty difficult for journalists to do accurate reporting in the first place. I don’t see the violence making any significant impact to the inaccuracies.
Again, WTFC!
Thorun says
Thanks for the post. F*88! US media is a joke. It is the main reason I don’t pay for Cable television anymore… Got my internet, my PS3, and Netflix…
That’s basics any ignorant fool needs to educate one’s self from eating the ignorant garbage being fed to population stupid…
signed,
Corn and Soy Bred Ignorant Spoon-Fed Citizen of Planet Idiot-Ville
Charles Liu says
@jxie
This is but another example of controlled media in US. Remember the Langxiang Vocational School BS last year? It was also traced to a US government sponsored source, China Digital Times.
r v says
The BS wagon from the Western Media ran out of stuff to throw around.
But the PR engine of the US government is on full steam. Just steam, you understand, not really going anywhere.
*Every day now, the US government chimes in on the Egypt situation, supporting this, advocating that, warning there, etc. Plenty of speeches with big words.
But really, what is it doing? Nothing.
What could it do about Egypt any how? Nothing. (Except perhaps halt the money gravy train to Egypt, and watch it collapse).
*I wish for once, the US PR and Pundit machines would just shut the heck up! Quit manipulating yourselves to make yourselves feel good! (That sounded pretty dirty. Oh well. :))
YinYang says
Pretty funny, the Economist reported Egypt news blocked too, and below are two of the highest recommended comments:
TIME, The Economist, WSJ – the sooner they merge and lay off redundant reporting, the better off they will be.
r v says
To paraphrase someone,
People of Democracy are “free to be ignorant”. (which is 1984 newspeak for being brainwashed, that being think they know something, when they know only lies).