The tough controls and censorship under president Xi Jinping has further restricted the press freedom in China. According to ABC news1, many journalist in China are giving up their profession, as they can’t find themselves any spaces to question and investigate towards the Communist Party of China.
Despite the restricted press environment, China does have one of the largest TV industry in the world. In which the Chinese national television channel, CCTV has 140 million people tune in every night at seven for its news bulletin.
As the news is reported in five different languages, different versions vary with each other. This article will compare the English and the Chinese CCTV news on 28th June, 2016 by the five values of news, as well as its reporting style and amount of coverage on certain politically sensitive story.
In broad, the English and Chinese version of CCTV news shared the same news stories coverage, which include the bilateral relation between Germany and China, the high speed railway between Beijing and Shanghai, as well as the approval of the new pilot program for mainland China travellers to Tai Wan, yet the story line up could be spotted as the differences between the English version and the local version.
The story about the bilateral relation between Germany and China was prioritized as the most important news that was as the first story to report in both versions, which is understandable as the the meeting of the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel was indeed news worthy as it the press conference between the two leaders are, important and significance for Chinese citizens.
However, the reporting style of the Chinese CCTV news is totally different. It spent 13 minutes out of the 30 minutes of the news program to further celebrate and appreciate the speeches given by the Chinese Premier, while the English version provides a more objective view towards the story by having the speeches of Chancellor as well as the views and perspectives of human rights in China by the former Primer Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, which hadn’t been covered in the Chinese version.
Apart from that, the difference in the amount of coverage on behalf of the approval of the new pilot program for mainland China travellers to Tai Wan in the English and the Chinese version was very questionable.
The Chinese version of the CCTV news used 5 seconds (26:55 – 27:00 the second last news story of the news bulletin) in total to cover the new pilot program to Tai Wan.
Yet, one third of the English news bulletin (5:55 – 16:55) were spent on covering the new pilot program, with experts pointing out how Tai Wan could benefit from the Chinese tourists, as well as suggestions on how to avoid conflicts and disputes in Tai Wan.
Such different in coverage amount is questionable with the history of intense divide conflict between China and Tai Wan2 .
CCTV could be seen as “political censoring”, to avoid reporting too much Tai Wan related news stories to the nation through the main channel. The main coverage of the new pilot program from China to Tai Wan was reported in English only, was greatly reduced the possibility of the Chinese citizens to get into further details of the story with the language barrier.
Are these the difference in “news worthiness” or CCTV being politically correct towards the Chinese Communist Party? Who knows.
Reference
1 ABC news http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2016/s4428199.htm
2 BBC news http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34729538