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BBC refutes claims that Chinese site appeases censors

Posted: 09/02/06 By: Jemima Kiss
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The BBC World Service has rubbished claims that a new language-learning site for China is offering politically neutral content to bypass government censorship.

A story published on 3 February by the Financial Times (FT) described the content of BBCChina.com.cn as 'studiously uncontroversial', avoiding any of the corporation's hard-hitting news coverage so the site would bypass Beijing censors.

But in a letter published in the FT on Tuesday, World Service director Nigel Chapman said the FT had misrepresented the BBC's policy on reporting news for Chinese audiences by implying that the site is a news service designed to appease Chinese authorities.

Instead, the new site is designed to teach English to Chinese speakers and is not a news site or a substitute for the main online service BBC Chinese.com - still blocked by the authorities for most users in China.

The story followed widespread coverage of Google's decision to launch a government-approved site for China, promoting criticism that the search giant has sacrificed its ethics for the opportunity of building its audience in the lucrative Chinese market.

World Service spokesman Mike Gardner said the BBC is not a commercial organisation and does not have the same motivation for the commercial market.

"This is not about news content," he told journalism.co.uk.

"There is a huge appetite for learning English - the government wants one third of Beijing speaking English by the Olympics."

The new site is a collaboration between the World Service and BBC Education designed specifically to teach English to Chinese estimated language-learning audience of 200 million.

Content explains elements of British culture and customs, so a recent piece about the British reaction to the Danish cartoon controversy illustrated British reaction rather than highlighting a Beijing-friendly news story.

"The key point is that the BBC's news is impartial, independent and uncompromising," said Mr Gardner.

"It would be a gross dereliction of our duty to be anything else."

He added that BBC Chinese.com is not censored - it is blocked, although Chinese authorities do not admit that they block sites. Instead they say that there are problems accessing the site.

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