Bye Bye BBC

BANNED BBC Broadcasting News Channel

M.A's commentary:

image taken from commons.wikipedia.org from BBC

BBC is available online but was removed from tv. I miss BBC TV because I liked the voices in English although I didn't care particularly for their newscasts. I miss hearing things said that are new or unscripted. I can watch movies or sometimes newsbits online. But it is segments, not a full debate or actual conversations. I like the news ticker at the bottom of the screen. I live in a foreign country where my native language is spoken in carefully filtered slow speed by the foreigners living here as well as the Chinese. You get used to talking that way at work and it carries over. Newstalk is fast and furious. I miss having the news fed to me, even if it was nothing important. Maybe I am lazy and living behind firewall is a way to keep me sharp.

Indigo's commentary:
I can't say why the BBC News Channel is blocked but not BBC online....My best guess is that the government is unable to censor the news or programming as it is live broadcasted compared to having the ability to block certain stories published on the online content of BBC. I'm going to assume that the BBC version of news my mother is able to access is probably significantly more limited than the news I access on my Ipad living in England. But at least she is able to get some information from the website.

 In addition, I know from experience that BBC does occasionally discuss what could be deemed controversial ideas, and no doubt the Chinese government would like to keep those ideas away from its citizens. However, I know that BBC wasn't a widely accessed news channel in China. If I recall correctly it is mostly foreigners living in China that would watch it, so the need to censor or remove it should be minimal.

As an added note, I know that I would suffer greatly from the loss of BBC news. It is my go to for the most up to date information, and I like it so much that I have even applied for jobs within the company. So I'm taking a moment to appreciate how fortunate I am to be able to access the full content of BBC on TV, online and in general. This goes for all news service, I don't doubt that I can easily access multiple articles on any piece of news that I want. While my mother and those living in China might be limited to one edited version of a story.