A segment on CNN discussing the recent mystery over the whereabouts of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai has provided a frightening insight into censorship in that country.
Peng’s disappearance has made headlines around the world over the last week, with a host of tennis stars calling for China to confirm that she is well.
She went missing after a social media post that alleged she’d been sexually assaulted by a senior Chinese official.
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In a piece discussing the welfare of Peng, who was shown recently in a video call with IOC boss Thomas Bach, CNN also showed the live feed of the network in China, with the discussion censored as soon as the topic was raised.
CNN anchors John Berman and Brianna Keilar were speaking with reporter Will Ripley about the issue, when the CNN signal in China simply disappeared.
“I want to explain to our viewers what’s happening on our screen right now because underneath your (Ripley’s) face, they can see a box which is the actual live feed of this broadcast in China, but it’s all colour bars and it went to colour bars the minute you started talking,” Berman said.
“What’s going on here?”
Ripley replied: “Chinese censors, John. I have lost count over the last eight years here in Asia covering China how many times CNN’s coverage of controversial issues has been censored.
“It used to go to straight black, but now they’ve upgraded and they go to colour bars. But nonetheless it is a live, real-time example of the censorship that’s happening in the mainland.
“They scrubbed Peng Shuai from the internet, they’re certainly not talking about this on television and even on international networks, they have an army of censors waiting to push that button the minute that we start talking about this story.
“But it is not making this story go away.”
Peng was missing for nearly three weeks after her social media post, before re-appearing in a video call with IOC boss Thomas Bach on Sunday.
https://twitter.com/Yaqiu/status/1462472241464197141?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The IOC is now facing increasing backlash over its handling of the affair, given Beijing is due to host the Winter Olympics in February.
“This is just disturbing on another level,” tweeted Yaqiu Wang, a spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch.
“The IOC is now actively playing a role in the Chinese government’s enforced disappearance, coercion and propaganda machinery.”
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