More on China’s (questionable) media freedom during the Olympic period – BBC’s Panorama have aired a program a couple of weeks ago titled “China’s Olympic Promise“, presented by John Sweeney and showing that media openness is still somewhat lacking despite the assurances of the central government. Yet again, this instead merely portrays the authorities making complete twits out of themselves, in particular the young minder who surely should be doing something more useful to society like driving a bus. Panorama will air again on BBC World this weekend.
On other news, ITN’s John Ray is bundled into a police van for merely doing his job and reporting protests – something he is entitled to do under the new rules stipulating press freedom. Clearly the police did not get the memo, and instead were being typically intrusive – yet another embarrassing scene for international television. But did it stop us from seeing the protests? No.
As for the local media? Obviously there has not been much change there, with the news being as orchestrated as ever during the Olympics period. Change is taking pace, slowly, but so far it doesn’t look like the Olympics has had much immediate impact on the local media.