Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

The Great Wall Of China Is Tall, Too Tall

This evening, I returned to my hotel room in China and as usual spaced out in front of the television with Hong Kong’s Channel Pearl (the only English channel apart from CNBC). While I was watching the 7.30pm news, the newscaster started “Today, protestor in Tibet sparked more violence as” and then just as she was about to show a video of protestors marching in Tibet - a pimple lotion advertisement abruptly cut in.

When the advertisement finished, the programming was restored to the news but by then, the newscaster was talking about Osama Bin Laden threatening Europe instead over some unfunny cartoons.

I sat in shock.

I had not known that the Hong Kong news channel shown in China was subject to China censorship!!! No wonder almost every single advertisement was that of the pimple lotion and some anti-balding hair tonic.

So I took a look on the web and discovered that since the trouble in Tibet started, China has started blocking Yahoo, YouTube, BBC and CNN too.

The HK news you watching were not received over the air. They were all streamed through their local stations via cable with a 2 to 9 seconds lag in order for them to pre-empt anything that they feel is too sensitive to broadcast.