From The Newsweek: Despite TV censorship, hot news, cool personalities”and a tinge of controversy”are enlivening China’s small screen.
In mainland media, coverage of politics is still tightly controlled; contentious topics such as leadership tensions or the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown remain taboo. Despite such restrictions”or perhaps because of them”in China, news is new. “Taiwan had 10 TV news channels, but mainland China didn’t have even one,” Liu recalls, “That’s why I knew there was an audience for news.” Now Phoenix”which claims some 130 million viewers in the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan”has three Chinese”language feeds, including the main channel which features news, current affairs and general”entertainment shows; a 24″hour news channel; and a movie channel.
