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And you thought that the FCC was bad

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posted Wednesday, 9 May 2007
When you get down to it, running a Chinese television network isn't exactly the easiest job in the world.

Firstly, you have to dodge around Beijing's infamous "Grey List" of topics that either cannot be discussed, or which can only which can only be discussed in a manner approved by the state. Making it difficult to produce hard hitting programs about history, politics or current affairs. Next, you have to work within the guidelines set China's fickle ministry of culture, which seem to change by the hour as the ministry defines and redefines what it considers to be "healthy viewing". Making it difficult to connect with the lucrative youth market, and all but impossible to come up with an original idea. Yesterday spiked hair was out, today popular terms drawn from local dialects are out, who knows what will be out tomorrow. Maybe it the color green, or the number 9? Even after all of that, there's more. VCDs and DVDs are so cheap and available that nobody bothers to tunes in to see into see the next episode of their favorite soap, or the latest movie any more, they just buy them for a couple of dollars, weeks before you can screen them.

However, if all of this wasn't bad enough, it appears that China's broadcasters may now have to deal with a new hazard. Television "hackers".

According to local media, an unidentified groups of "hackers" attacked South China's satellite broadcasting network last Thursday, and succeeded in either overriding or corrupting the distribution signal. Resulting in television screens across  Guangdong province being blanked out for up to 2 hours, and causing programing to be replaced with sporadic bursts of what have been described as being "anti-government messages".

When contacted, Southern broadcasting and administration groups initially either refused to comment or issued blanket statements blaming the incident blaming the incident on "unstable" satellite signals.

Although rare, such incidents are not unknown, and there have been a small number of similar occurrances in the past. Most notably when supporters of the FLG religious group, believed to be based in Chinese-Taiwan, succeeded in using Chinese distribution networks to broadcast anti-government messages across South Eastern China.

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View Comments/Add a Comment (2)


1. Nita left...
Monday, 28 May 2007 11:10 pm :: http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/

I went to China as a tourist recently and was surprised at the degree of westernisation in your cities. In fact even in some villages (we traveled by train from Beijing to Xian) we found people wearing pants and shirts. This is very unlike India. I too am against one culture dominating the other and believe that one should preserve one's distinct cultural identity. However I think a certain amount of amalgamation can work. Even the western culture has changed a lot during the last 30 years, some of it for the worse. A happy medium has to be found, but at the same time I too find abhorrent the racist attitudes of the west. Where they believe that only their way of life is the best. In fact in China I found that the western tourists were looking at us with distrust. There are hardly any Indian tourists in China and wherever we went, whether on a boat, into a hotel or on a train we were surrounded by white people and they were mostly Europeons and most unfriendly. It was an eeyrie sort of experience as we are so used to smiling and nodding at people. Maybe that is western culture, but I we don't know as we live in India and have never by our very presence ever made anyone uncomfortable. And what were we? Just a quiet couple with two sweet teenage daughters. However I found that Americans were friendly. I guess Americans are the least racist of all white people.


2. ACB left...
Tuesday, 29 May 2007 12:30 am

"In fact even in some villages (we traveled by train from Beijing to Xian) we found people wearing pants and shirts."

But..... pants and shirts are just so practical. Traditional Chinese dress is fine for ethnic groups where it keeps a culture alive, and for special occasions, it is less practical than traditional Indian dress.

"whether on a boat, into a hotel or on a train we were surrounded by white people and they were mostly Europeons"

Really? I'm surprised at that. Outside of the big cities I've rarely encountered whites while I was traveling. Out of the last dozen long distance trips that I made I only recall meeting whites on 2 occasions and both times I was traveling out of Shanghai which has a large white population and many white tourists.

"Even the western culture has changed a lot during the last 30 years, some of it for the worse."

In my experience, a lot of it has been for the worst. I much prefer the West that I remember from the 80s to the West of today. It's gotten particularly bad since 9/11. It's going to take more than the promise of the American dream to lure me there these days.

"I found that the western tourists were looking at us with distrust"

They might not have realized that you were Indian and thought that you were from the middle east or something. They can get a little bit jumpy at times. It's not their fault, they tend to get blamed for everything these days.

"However I found that Americans were friendly. I guess Americans are the least racist of all white people."

Nah, American's tourists are just more flamboyant than the rest. If you put a German tourist next to an American tourist, the German will look gloomy when he's glad and the American will look glad when he's gloomy. Big grins are just another part of their culture.