Word: cctv
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...become clear that CCTV employees were to blame for starting the fire that destroyed the Television Cultural Center. They ignored a government regulation forbidding the usage of fireworks and chose the unfinished building as a backdrop for their display. It soon became a chaotic spectacle, after some of the explosions ignited flammable materials within the building’s internal walls...
...been tuned in to CCTV, you would not have heard of it. As the flames consumed the symbolic building adjacent to the network’s headquarters, a notice was circulated to Chinese news websites, media outlets, and blogs telling moderators to stop reporting on the fire. The government allowed no more posts, no more news, no more photos, hoping to contain what they saw as a tragedy and perhaps a threatening omen...
...Eventually, the government released an “official” account through the state news agency, Xinhua. Thereafter, CCTV issued an apology regretting the damage to “state property,” although they forgot to mention the firefighter who died while combating the flames. And, finally, 12 CCTV employees were arrested “on suspicion of creating a disturbance with dangerous materials.” Their fate is, at this point, unclear...
...Although Western hopes for change in the human-rights arena around the Olympics were thwarted last year, the CCTV complex fire shows that the current government grip on dissent and free information will become, sooner or later, unsustainable. No matter how they spin it, it was not possible for the government to control the imagery around the tragedy; everyone with access to the Internet could see the skyscraper burn. Perhaps more importantly, within China it was obvious that the elite employees of CCTV tried to get away with circumventing laws forbidding the use of fireworks in the complex. In more...
...that development can be defined in many ways. But the combination of censorship, autocratic rule, and an oligarchic elite resented by lower classes does not bode well, particularly in times of economic downturn. If media censorship is the Chinese version of the French Bastille, perhaps the next fire at CCTV headquarters will be more than an unfortunate accident...