Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany) has secured placement for a range of lifestyle and culture programs on four Chinese video portals, Kim Andrew Elliot wrote on March 14, quoting a March-12 Worldscreen report. Their videos are reportedly to be found on v.huanqiu.com, youku.com, tudou.com and ku6.com, who chose, among others, Chinese editions of Global Ideas and Future Now.
No indication that any of these programs will be translated into Chinese,
notes Elliot, and given that they are distributed via portals rather than television channels would probably also limit their audience potential.
It seems that Deutsche Welle, just like any other portal user, upload some of their videos there – this video from the fashion category, like most or all the others, comes without Chinese subtitles, and another, from the education category, informs the German-speaking Chinese netizen that German schools’ realities are poisoned by cyber terror. The two videos haven’t got either “likes” or “dislikes” yet. The Deutsche Welle channel does have 177 fans, however. Uploads of January have been watched between seven and 82 times respectively (the latter one is Test it! Porsche). A Porsche’s language wouldn’t need translation anyway, and besides, that video is in English.
Unfortunately, Deutsche Welle seems to be facing poisoned realities of their own, on the Chinese internet. They had to reincarnate on their Sina-Weibo account in November last year, Oiwan Lam reported on Global Voices. Germany’s voice abroad – reportedly – raged about the tyranny of Sina, and their reincarnation statement in question (as linked to by Mrs. Lam) isn’t available anymore, either:
Sina Weibo: not even real-name registration can save you
Or maybe Deutsche Welle themselves deleted that micro post, seeing the uselessness of such undignified complaints.
Try shortwave, Deutsche Welle. Try shortwave.
Public Diplomacy, Networks and Influence picked up some remarks by British Council chief executive Martin Davidson, about Confucius Institutes:
[The Chinese] want to change the perception of China — to combat negative propaganda with positive propaganda. And they use the word ‘propaganda’ in Chinese. But I doubt they have to say, ‘We’ll only give you this money if you never criticize China.’ The danger is more of self-censorship — which is a very subtle thing.
Meantime, the BBC suspects Iran of a cyber-attack, and linked that to Iran’s efforts to disrupt the BBC Persian Service.
OK – when it’s about Iran, you can still call them out, especially when you are the Beeb. But either way, if you want to build a nicer and fairer world, you’ll need to choose your enemies carefully, and make sure that they are of a manageable size. Die Welt, a German daily (including a Sunday edition) apparently understands that. On January 2, 2012, an author there explained why George W. Bush was right after all, and that Iran and North Korea are indeed an axis of evil. This is the article’s conclusion:
Of course, regime change must not always be put into practice by military means, but Bush is right with his diagnosis: dictatorships remain dictatorships, evil and hostile. One must not tolerate them, but fight them with all means. Especially Iran and North Korea.
Natürlich dürfen die Wege zum Regimewechsel nicht immer nur militärische sein. Bush hat aber recht mit der Diagnose: Diktaturen bleiben Diktaturen, böse und feindselig. Man darf sie nicht tolerieren, sondern muss sie mit allen Mitteln bekämpfen. Besonders den Iran und Nordkorea.
With all means – you can read here how the press can do its share to fight evil dictatorships.
And you can read here why, maybe, they should resist that temptation to “fight”. It is, in fact, a very old story.
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