1.2 billion viewers, 294 TV stations, 1.283 channels, and 400 million TV sets. Danish media people can only dream of such market conditions. But we're in China with these figures, the situation is a conference jointly arranged by UNESCO, Copenhagen Business School/CBS, and International Media Support/IMS - and the guest of honour today is Mr. Sun Yusheng, Vice-President of China Central Television/CCTV, Beijing. He gave a talk about the reform of Chinese television and the rise of new media. He was asked by one of the interviewers, Mette Thunøe a pro-dean for Copenhagen University, about the use of these new media. And his answer might not be so jaw dropping: he focused on the possibility of downloading programmes from the website. But where was the promise of true interactivity, debates, blogs, etc?Not surprisingly Mr. Sun Yusheng was also asked about censorship in Chinese television, in particular by interviewer Mette Holm, former correspondent in Beijing. And from text message questions from the audience, consisting primarily of scholars, Asia students, journalists, and media people. About 125 people according to the list of participants. He confirmed the censorship in Chinese media, and said:
'In the first line we have a responsibility as a gate keeper. We are consistently in search of objective and correct reporting to ensure fairness. The media should be the guardian for the society.'
If this guardian for the society also involves being a guardian for its people - or just for 'the society' was not quite clear. But he did stress that if any wrong doing was done by for instance local government, they would have to report it. And he did stress that there is a great difference in the Western and the Chinese perception of freedom of speech. His mission, however, was not to promote Chinese politics - only Chinese culture. Judging from the many text message questions, the paradox was that most people came to ask questions about the first.
89 percent of the chinese population followed the Olympics on CCTV, according to Mr. Sun Yusheng. He saw the future of growth for CCTV as being a part of an international news network, and as a vehicle to promote - Chinese culture.