Hong Kong — Easing tight controls over its television industry, China is
allowing News Corp. subsidiary Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings to air
its 24-hour Chinese-language news channel in the mainland.
Mainland broadcast regulators decided at year’s end to let luxury hotels,
diplomatic quarters and other designated compounds receive Phoenix’s
InfoNews Channel, Roger Uren, vice-president for international affairs at
Phoenix, said Tuesday.
Phoenix, which is 37.6 per cent owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
television subsidiary STAR, already broadcasts in Mandarin-dialect Chinese
to the mainland on a movie channel, seen mainly in southern Guangdong
province.
To avoid offending communist leaders Phoenix has tended to avoid coverage on
politically sensitive topics, such as the banned spiritual group Falun Gong.
AP http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?current
Posting date: 10/Jan/2003
Original article date: 9/Jan/2003
Category: Media Report
