China Launches Bold Media Promotion Campaign

China will cultivate three state-run media outlets -- CCTV, Xinhua and the People’s Daily -- as global media with greater influence worldwide, the South China Morning Post of Hong Kong said yesterday.

Beijing apparently believes its three news organizations are top players in China, but have little influence in setting opinions among people abroad.

Hence, the Chinese government will secure 45 billion yuan (7.5 billion U.S. dollars) to split evenly among the three.

Xinhua will form a TV station that broadcasts international news targeting viewers around the world. Beijing also plans to give more freedom to the new station in program scheduling and news editing than it does to Phoenix TV of Hong Kong.

Xinhua also plans to increase the number of its overseas bureaus from around 100 to 186 under a plan to set up one branch per country.

The People’s Daily will start publishing an English-language edition from May.

CCTV will launch channels broadcasting in Arabic and Russian as part of its aggressive globalization drive. The Chinese network airs in Chinese, English, French and Spanish, reaching 83.8 million viewers in 137 countries.

Beijing’s plan reportedly stems from its recognition that Chinese media outlets wielded no influence in setting opinions when protests hit the Olympic torch relay in many parts of the world in April last year ahead of the Beijing Summer Olympics.

Twenty-two Chinese scholars and legal experts, however, have launched a campaign to boycott CCTV, the BBC said, saying, “CCTV is focusing only on promoting the propaganda of the (communist) regime.”