In a report in Friday's New York Times, it was written that Chinese diplomats in Canada pressured the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to pull the program "Beyond the Red Wall: The Persecution of Falun Gong." The action was prompted by what was described as a telephone call to the CBC from a "cultural consultant" at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa. A spokesperson for the CBC, Jeff Keay, has rejected any connection between the Olympics and the CBC and said the decision was made in response to the aforementioned telephone call from the Embassy. John Cruickshank who is in charge of the news operations at CBC said that "I'm happy we stepped into the process. In the end, we got the journalism right."
Or did you?
Who's journalism exactly? The Chinese, or the CBC's who's charter I am sure mandates fair and accurate reporting (if it is the same as Radio Canada International's, of which I listen a lot to.)
I am really disappointed in the CBC for caving in to pressure and not airing the program. How about letting the Canadian people deicde for themselves on what they can watch and not some faceless flunky at an embassy who wants to impart their brand of (cough cough) "impartiality" which translates to, "if you air this program, we can bet next year we're going to give you grief." The CBC in my opinion took the lazy way out and caved, which they should have never done.
This sets a dangerous precedent. Who's next? NBC? BBC? TVNZ? We know the Chinese don't keep their promises. But they have no business telling CBC what they should broadcast. I wonder how this is going to play out in the end, if the program will be shown at all. Maybe one of the cable stations up in Canada will pick up the program since CBC is too chicken to air it.
To my Canadian readers: I am outraged and I hope you are too. No matter where you live (in/out of Canada) let's tell Jeff and John what we think and maybe the Chinese Embasssy in Ottawa should get a call too. This action by China is totally unacceptable for Canadians, let alone for anyone else who's country will recieve an Olympic broadcast next year.
I thought CBC was impartial. Guess I got it wrong.
