China’s CCTV Looks to Follow the Al Jazeera Model, But Struggles To Break Free From State Ownership

The AP looks at CCTV, China’s state television station, and its plans for global expansion. As we have noted, the network wants to expand to the U.S., following in the model of Al Jazeera, which is bankrolled by the government of Qatar. Unlike Al Jazeera however, CCTV has little autonomy, and has a much steeper hill to climb.

The channel routinely ignores or downplays negative stories about China’s government, and gives positive stories more play.

Here in the U.S., the expansion is just beginning:

Veteran U.S. foreign correspondent Jim Laurie, hired to help in Washington, said on his website he was looking for experienced news professionals and that plans call for the U.S. operation to produce four hours of programming daily by June. Laurie declined to comment for this article.

At a time when budgets are tightening in news rooms, China’s government appears willing to pour billions of dollars into expanding its international media footprint. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper has reported the total budget to be as high as 45 billion yuan ($7.1 billion), although no official announcement has been made.

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